Monthly Archives: November 2014

Scenes I Love: American Psycho

Posted on by Arleigh

894496-american-psycho-and-christian-bale

Last week I put up as one of the entries for the 27 Days of Old School the classic song by Huey Lewis and the News. That song is “Hip to be Square” and I wrote how that song has become famous as not just being part of a great album of the 80’s, but due to the fact that it became the soundtrack to one of the best scenes from Marry Harron’s American Psycho.

Patrick Bateman’s personal take on “Hip to be Square” resonates not just as a description of the song but of the 1980’s as well.

“Do you like Huey Lewis & The News? Their early work was a little too ‘new-wave’ for my taste, but when Sports came out in ’83, I think they really came into their own – both commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He’s been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humour. In ’87, Huey released this, Fore, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is ‘Hip To Be Square’, a song so catchy most people probably don’t listen to the lyrics – but they should! Because it’s not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it’s also a personal statement about the band itself! Hey Paul!”

27 Days of Old School: #10 “Jackin’ for Beats” (by Ice Cube)

Posted on by Arleigh

IceCube
“Ice Cube, will take a funky beat and reshape it
Locate a dope break, and then I break it”

The first time I heard this song it was on the plane trip from San Francisco to Washington, DC. I was part of a high school civic studies program called CLOSE-UP. It took high school students (who can afford the fee of, at that time, 2000 dollars) from all 50 states to attend a 5 day learning tour of the nation’s capital and learning how the Federal government worked. Let’s just say that even as a high school senior I was already passed the idealistic stage and onto that cynical stage.

“Jackin’ for Beats” was part of Ice Cube’s Kill at Will album and it was the CD I brought onto the plane with me and it literally became the soundtrack to my trip.

This song is literally nothing but sampled beats from other songs and remixed together to form a unique funky beat and bass sound for Cube to drop his lyrics on. Ironically, the lyrics to the song was Cube talking about him stealing (jackin’) beats he thought was cool and funky and using it himself but making it better because he’s Cube.

Below are the songs whose beats were sampled to make up this song and I have a feeling there’s probably a few more that people haven’t been able to figure out.

“If it Don’t Turn You on (You Outta Leave it Alone)” by B.T. Express * “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”, “The Payback”, “Funky President” & “Funky Drummer” by James Brown * “I Know You Got Soul” & “Hot Pants. . . I’m Coming, I’m Coming, I’m Coming” by Bobby Byrd * “Bop Gun (Endangered Species)” by Parliament * “Sing a Simple Song” by Sly & The Family Stone * “Big Ole Butt” by LL Cool J * “So Wat Cha Sayin'” by EPMD * “Ashley’s Roachclip” by The Soul Searchers * “Bon Bon Vie” by T.S. Monk * “Psychedelic Shack” by The Temptations * “Hector” by Village Callers * “More Bounce to the Ounce” by Zapp * “Big Beat” by Billy Squier * “Buzzsaw” by The Turtles * “The Haunted House” by Disney * “Welcome to the Terrordome” by Public Enemy * “The Humpty Dance” by Digital Underground * “100 Miles and Runnin” by N.W.A.”

Review: The Walking Dead S5E05 “Self Help”

Posted on by Arleigh

TheWalkingDeadS5E05

“I know things.” — Eugene Porter

[spoilers]

Tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead was shaping up to be one of this season’s first major stumbles in what has been a very good season. The show was due for a mulligan this first half of the season and audiences probably wouldn’t have made too much of a big deal. It’s almost a joke now that the series tends to have some weak throwaway episodes that goes nowhere before ramping things back up again.

“Self Help” did try it’s hardest to put the breaks on this season’s forward momentum, but surprisingly the episode ended up being a helpful and informative entry to The Walking Dead series.

We get a cold opening of Abraham, Eugene, Rosita plus new additions in Glenn, Maggie and Tara on the bus having left the Rick and the other half of their group back in the church. They’re on their way to D.C. where Abraham hopes whatever miracle cure Eugene has in his mulleted head will end the nightmare world they’re now living in. It’s a mission that Abraham has such a laser-focus in completing that when we get back after the cold opening’s bus crash there’s signs that our redhead Sergeant might not be as calm and collected as we’ve come to believe.

Yes, tonight’s latest episode is a sort of origin story to how Abraham and Eugene got to where they are now. Why is Abraham so intent on getting to D.C. as fast as possible despite Eugene acting like me might not be who says he is.

It’s how the episode was structured that made it look like it was going to be one of the weaker episodes this season. The cold opening was almost done as a sort of joke with Eugene’s mullet being the punch line. We still get the requisite group zombie attack on the group several times throughout the episode and we see that even though their number has been halved they still work quite efficiently in spite of Eugene’s utter uselessness in the face of battle.

Why exactly is Abraham so protective of Eugene? Surely there’s probably other scientists who have survived who could do the same things Eugene professes to know.

We find out exactly through flashbacks to Abraham’s time in the early days of the zombie apocalypse when it looks like he still has his family. These flashbacks show us exactly why Abraham has taken on Eugene as his mission. In an encounter at the end of the episode we find Eugene stumbling helpless as Abraham was about to end it all with a bullet, but seeing this mulleted man looking like he could barely out-walk the zombies stumbling after him puts him into badass mode.

Abraham has a reason to continue living. His temper getting the best of him and having his family seeing him at his most brutal and terrible has cost him their lives. While his temper saved his family from further rape (seemed implied) and harm from random strangers it also showed them the sort of man he was when confronted with danger. He’s a soldier. A sergeant in the military who was probably the toughest one in his unit. He’s probably seen combat and done things in war that he wasn’t proud of but he did it to finish the mission. With protecting his family from the zombies and the chaos out in the world now gone he has moved on to protecting Eugene. He sees Eugene as the hope he’s returning back to the world and, maybe, make the loss of his family not be in vain.

The same could be said about Eugene who is the polar opposite of Abraham, but whose smarts and ability to think on his feet (meaning lie) has kept him alive where others more physically-able has fallen. Eugene has a mission to keep himself alive as long as possible and he has conned Abraham and the others into thinking he’s the savior. Yet, as we see throughout this episode he has begun to see that maybe he doesn’t need to keep lying to stay alive. He has found a group in Rick and the others who bring people in because they’re decent and willing to forgive.

Abraham and Eugene have switched roles by episode’s end. We see Abraham’s sanity reach it’s breaking point and when Eugene tells him and the others that he has been selling them all a lie we see a that tenuous hold Abraham has on his bottled up anger unleashed on Eugene. On the other side of the equation we see how Eugene has gathered the courage and confidence in knowing the others will not turn him away to finally reveal the truth.

While “Self Help” wasn’t one of the better episode this season it served it’s purpose. We finally find out the truth about Eugene. He and Abraham finally have begun to round out as real characters instead of one-note caricatures of the badass soldier and the meek brain we’ve been shown, so far. Even Rosita gets some of her rough edges trimmed a bit as we see her as a sort of calming influence on the volatile sergeant.

With the cure now a mission that’s sure to end where does this leave and Abraham and his group. Do they make their way back to the church and join up with Rick again or do they continue forward and find a new place to hold up until Rick gets to them? Will Eugene ever be trusted by the others again or will they understand why he did what he did even if it meant others died to keep him and his lie safe? More questions arose with tonight’s episode, but they’re new ones that look towards moving the story forward instead of keeping things in place and going in circles.

Notes

  • “Self Help” was written by Heather Bellson and directed by series regular Ernest Dickerson.
  • We get a brutal flashback with Abraham using canned food to smash the face in of a man who might’ve raped his wife. Again the show does a lot to push the line in terms of TV censors (so far they’ve gotten a free hand at things), but they continue to stay away from actually showing rape occur on the series. Everything has been implied.
  • In the comics the men Abraham killed in the flashbacks were friends of his he banded together with in the early days of the zombie outbreak. They ended up raping his wife and daughter while he was out scavenging for weapons. He literally ripped apart all 6 men with his bare hands and why his family were scared of him.
  • This season has seen quite a new look for the zombies as we see them more lethargic and easier to kill due to their physical status, but as we see in the end it’s their massive numbers which continues to make them such a danger even to a hardened, veteran group of survivors like Abraham Glenn and Maggie.
  • Yes, that mullet on Eugene was getting to be too much party in the back.
  • Never thought I would hear the words “dolphin smooth” uttered on The Walking Dead but heard them I did.
  • At least we now know that Abraham and Eugene pair up all the way back in Texas. Most likely Houston.
  • Talking Dead guests tonight are a trio from the show itself: Michael Cudlitz (Abraham Ford), Josh McDermitt (Eugene Porter) and Gale Anne Hurd (series Executive Producer)

Season 5

BlizzCon 2014: Two Videos Worth Watching from Saturday

Posted on by necromoonyeti

All of the meat and cheese of BlizzCon’s content is traditionally crammed into Friday. They open with a bang, throw all of the big news at you all at once, and then spend Saturday giving you some time to soak it in. Lots of Q&A panels are the norm, along with a growing collection of e-sports grand finals and a big rock concert to send you off in style. 2014 was no different, and there is certainly no major news to bring to the table, but it was nevertheless a day full of entertaining events, and I would like to share with you my two favorites.

The first is a documentary called “Looking for Group”. In celebration of the ten year anniversary of World of Warcraft, Blizzard created a one hour documentary about how the game came to be. The film leaves a lot to be desired from the players’ perspective. Blizzard took up a great deal of the time archiving fan experiences in the game–a married couple talks about first meeting in Stormwind, a teen reflects on growing up playing the game with his father, a handicapped woman remembers playing WoW to help mentally recover from her accident. It is probably incredible for a game developer to think that they made that much of an impact on peoples’ lives, but anyone who has played the game long enough has run into situations like this before. It’s nothing particularly novel or exciting for the fans. But the film also incorporates plenty of behind-the-scenes looks into how the company has operated over the years and the personalities leading the charge. I found the details on the early developmental years of the game especially interesting. If you have ever enjoyed World of Warcraft, it’s worth taking an hour to watch this:

The second video I want to share with you might take some persuasion. When your two favorite professional sports are golf and Starcraft, it is really hard to make friends. But such is my fate. Despite all of the columns I was pumping out Friday, I actually did manage to watch live all 30 matches of the Starcraft II World Championship Series Global Finals that took place at BlizzCon. MMA knocking off Bomber 3-1 might have been the biggest upset, but Classic’s rocky 3-2 finish over herO made MMA’s path to the final round feel easy. Life ultimately outclassed him 4-1 in a way that was certainly impressive but not exceptionally fun to watch. The real excitement came in the bottom bracket semi-finals. Life and TaeJa breezed their ways past San and INnoVation 3-0 and 3-1 respectively, and both players looked to be at the peak of their game rolling into the semi-finals. Life ultimately progressed to the finals 3-2 in what was surely the most intense series of the event. The video below was my favorite match of that series. It starts off with both players taking extremely aggressive and risky stances–in Life’s case one you would almost never see at this level. I’m not going to spoil who wins, but the 24 minute length of the video should tell you that both players move beyond the opening chaos. Neither player is willing to put on the breaks all game, forcing some really unconventional gameplay. With practically perfect micro on both fronts, we get to see what a top tier SC2 match ought to look like–two masterminds who can’t hope to surpass the other’s technical precision and have to bluff, gamble, and predict moves ahead of time to pull off a win.

I suppose that a lot of e-sports boil down to mind games as a sort of maximum skill level is reached. The glory of Starcraft II is that reaching that threshold is so difficult even many of the pros in the global finals succumb to error in basic techniques and strategy. That was not the case this weekend with TaeJa and Life, and that is what made this series my favorite at BlizzCon 2014.

And lastly, for those of you who were actually watching yesterday, what did you think of Metallica? I had a lot of fun on IRC during the closing ceremonies trash talking Lars, predicting what song would come next, and blabbering about metal in general. How did this band selection rank for you in the annals of BlizzCon closing ceremonies? Blizzard have offered a lot of variety in their selections over the years. From the somewhat genre-appropriate (Metallica), to the big ticket, high-budget rock sensation (Foo Fighters), to the bottom-barrel (Blind-182), to the in-house absurd (Lvl 80 Tauren Chieftain), we’ve seen a lot. Is it enough? Blizzard is all about nerd aggro. It is the heart and soul of their ethos. I’ve long thought a fantasy-oriented power metal band would be the best choice to reflect that. Even if most of the spectators had never heard of Blind Guardian before, you know they would bring the house down. Amon Amarth, Dethklok, Iced Earth, Iron Maiden, and Rhapsody of Fire were some of the other names that got dropped. Of course the most popular choice for a future BlizzCon was GWAR.

This will be my last post on BlizzCon 2014. Thanks for reading! Here are links to my previous entries:

BlizzCon 2014: Day 1 Recap, Cinematics & Gameplay

BlizzCon 2014: “Overwatch Unveiled”

BlizzCon 2014: Opening Ceremony, Overwatch Announced as New Franchise

BlizzCon 2014: Rumors and Speculations

27 Days of Old School: #9 “I Got It Made” (by Special Ed)

Posted on by Arleigh

Special_Ed_I_Got_It_Made

“I talk sense condensed into the form of a poem
Full of knowledge from my toes to the top of my dome”

It was 1989 and MTV was already something I was watching on a daily basis, but there was something missing from their daily music video rotation. They were criminally lacking with hip-hop videos. So, into the void was BET.

Where MTV was more about dance, pop and rock music videos, BET was all about R&B and hip-hop videos.

I will get all “grumpy old man” and say that I definitely enjoyed hip-hop the way it was during the 80’s and as late as the mid-90’s. For me things in that music scene just ended up becoming too commercialized. Not saying there’s no gems and gold in the trash I here now, but the hip-hop artists back in the my day were pure lyricists. Sure, their rhymes were still all about machismo and bragging about how they’re the best, but they had skill in doing so. I will put it up there that No. 9 on the 27 Days was one hell of a lyricist and he did so at the age of 16 (15 depending on when one thought the track was recorded).

I am talking about Special Ed and his hit track “I Got It Made”.

27 Days of Old School: #8 “Rio” (by Duran Duran)

Posted on by Arleigh

DuranDuranRio

“Cherry ice cream smile I suppose it’s very nice.”

Yes, I listened to Duran Duran as a wee lad and I must say that they were quite awesome then and even now. “Rio” was the song that I enjoyed listening to the most out of their whole 80’s work.

One thing that Duran Duran could never be accused of would be that they were subtle. The band was a great example of 1980’s excess. From the Miami Vice cocaine-fueled and candy-colored fashion right up to the Gordon Gecko flaunting of wealth and luxury. Whoever said new wave and synthpop was suppose to be all just about happy songs and easy on the eyes videos.

This band and their songs might sound all peppy and such, but they were just as hardcore and debauch as the next hardcore rock band. They just did it in a much different set of fashion style and attitude. No overly hairsprayed glam rocker hair or crotch-tight leather pants. They preferred their attire to be Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs style.

BlizzCon 2014: Day 1 Recap, Cinematics & Gameplay

Posted on by necromoonyeti

The first day of BlizzCon 2014 is coming to an end. While the Starcraft 2 stage pulls an all-nighter with live demonstrations of Archon mode from Legacy of the Void featuring such big names as MC and Polt, the rest of the Anaheim Convention Center has cleared out and gone home. Of course Overwatch was the biggest deal. What were some of the other interesting announcements?

Hearthstone will be getting a new expansion in December called Goblins vs. Gnomes. There will be 120 new cards, and the game is coming to Android.

Warcraft the movie will be released in March 2016, and it will be based on the original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans RTS.

Legacy of the Void matches will start with 12 workers, and players will not need to own either Wings of Liberty or Heart of the Swarm to play it. Lurkers are coming back, along with a whole mess of new units, and resource availability has been cut back to force faster matches. I’m not sure the last bit is good news for those of us who would rather watch the pros than play ourselves, but time will tell.

Everything was pretty quiet on the Diablo 3 front. I missed its hour slot, but considering it was on a side stage and got zero mention on the main stage, there couldn’t have been anything substantial. Heroes of the Storm got a lot of demonstration love, and Blizzard explained the rational behind a lot of the class and loot changes in Warlords of Draenor. Legacy of the Void demonstrations are still going on as I write this, and it might be the most entertaining segment we’ll see at BlizzCon. All the pros that lost in the round of 16 are going up against each other in Archon mode–shared-control team matches–messing around and showing off the new units. The commentary and in-game banter has been pretty hilariousl I’ll post up the cast of MC and HyuN’s TvZ stomp tomorrow if I can find it.

So anyway, I’ll close out the night by sharing the videos from day one that I think matter most: new cinematic trailers and gameplay videos for Overwatch and Legacy of the Void:

Overwatch Cinematic Trailer:

Legacy of the Void Cinematic Trailer:

Overwatch Gameplay Preview:

Legacy of the Void Unit Overview — Protoss:

Legacy of the Void Unit Overview — Terran:

Legacy of the Void Unit Overview — Zerg:

BlizzCon 2014: “Overwatch Unveiled”

Posted on by necromoonyeti

The hidden two hour bracket following BlizzCon’s opening ceremony was of course dedicated to Overwatch. The big spin they put on it was to emphasize how the game will not depend on “putting crosshairs over targets”. They talked of making it “less lethal”, and extending the gameplay to make it more stategic. That sounds like my Blizzard. Is it going to be something like an RTS FPS? Maybe. The biggest break from traditional FPS combat will be the abilities to heal and build things. A healer, as it sounds, follows the team around to keep them alive. Builders put up strategic zone-control defenses and weaponry. I’m being told that this is a bit of a copycat of Team Fortress 2, and that may well be the case. I am not familiar with that game, but strategy over beat-em-up has always been Blizzard’s style. The combat is not really just about killing the other team. Different maps will have different objectives, and Blizzard mentioned base defenses as well as escort missions. Battles will be 6 on 6, and Blizzard highlighted a few of the classes that will be involved. Here is how they broke it down:

‘Offense’ class has abilities like blink, arial rocket boost, teleportation, and wall climbing. These characters will have low survivability and maximum mobility, functioning as scouts and creating diversions.

‘Defense’ class guards objectives, creates choke points, and sets up sniper positions. Due to the high mobility of offense classes, choke points will be hard to come by and require thorough knowledge of the map.

‘Tank’ class does what you expect. They have 50% damage reduction and abilities such as shields that defend everyone within them from all damage for a time. They also have disruption abilities that break up defensive structures in the making.

‘Support’ class includes the healers and builders Blizzard had mentioned earlier. The regenerate players’ health, lay down gun turrets, apply damage increasing debuffs, and can teleport the team around the map.

Keep in mind, of course, that no player is going to have all of these abilities at once. The game consists of a number of “Heroes”, and each hero has its own unique set of abilities. Each hero will function as one of the four classes, but with their own unique advantages and disadvantages. You will be able to swap your hero in-game each time you die, alowing for more diverse strategy, and there can be more than one of the same hero on the field at the same time. There will supposedly be substantial backstory behind the game and characters, a lot of which will be presented to the players through media outside of the game, perhaps like the video lore series Blizzard released in preparation for Warlords of Draenor. In-game story will be limited, as there will be no campaign mode and it will be strictly multi-player. Blizzard declined to comment on what exactly out-of-game character development would be in the Q&A segment.

It all sounds quite promising, and the 10 or so minute demo match they showcased looked visually stunning, but I don’t know that the gameplay I saw lived up to the level of strategic involvement Blizzard tried to sell me. The demo opened up with the focus team setting up all kinds of ‘strategic’ positioning and gun turrets and the like, and then a buffed-up tank unit from the opposition jumped in the middle and face-rolled the entire team. Within a couple seconds the whole team was alive again and it was pretty pew pew for the next eight minutes. Granted the demo was a real demo, not a contrived, pre-planned sequence of combat, I kind of got the feeling the game would have a lot of this. So-called ‘strategic’ decisions happened in a split second, and what I think I saw was a lot of the same old “putting crosshairs over targets” technique that always turned me off to FPS games. Maybe those crosshairs sent out a magic spell or sticky grenade instead of a rocket, but it felt like the same old. We only saw one map, and ten minutes is waaay too little time to pass judgment, but I can say I haven’t seen what I want to see in this game yet.

In other news, during the SC2 WCS Global Finals Pre-Show Blizzard elaborated on “Archon” mode for Legacy of the Void in a way that made it sound like classic Starcraft shared bases–something I always enjoyed. It was also mentioned in-between segments that there are currently no plans to introduce any new classes in Hearthstone. Oh, and MMA whooped Bomber 3-1 in an upset victory in the Starcraft 2 round of 8. herO and Classic are up next.

BlizzCon 2014: Opening Ceremony, Overwatch Announced as New Franchise

Posted on by necromoonyeti

BlizzCon 2014’s opening ceremony just ended about 10 minutes ago, and it ran the gauntlet of new Blizzard products. Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Legacy of the Void got some attention, but the big news was about a franchise I did not expect: a brand new one!

First we got to see some Heroes of the Storm clips, and they announced Thrall, Jaina, and The Lost Vikings as playable characters. Nothing particularly “new”, unless you were already actively involved in the beta and recognized a new map or ability. The Hearthstone announcements were much more substantive. First of all, they announced that the game would be made available for Android “tablets”. I am going to assume that means it will work on my smart phone too. Hey, it’s not technically “texting” while driving. Count me in. We also found out about the next expansion, which Blizzard oddly called the “first” Hearthstone expansion. I am not sure what that makes Curse of Naxxramas, but suffice to say Hearthstone: Golbins vs. Gnomes is going to be way bigger. There will be a whopping 120 new cards, and we won’t have to wait long to see them. The game is coming in December 2014. Whaaa?

Legacy of the Void was covered next. Lurkers are coming back. Sweet. There will also be an “Archon” mode that didn’t get much of an explanation, but it was described as a mode that will allow you to see the game “the way the pros do”, giving you a grand view of everything at once. I’m not sure what that means, or whether it’s going to be more than a well-made UMS, but I’m intrigued.

That was the first half hour. Some big announcements for Hearthstone–a Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion with 120 new cards due out in only a month, and an Android edition. Heroes of the Storm and Legacy of the Void didn’t get much of a substantial update. Then on to Chris Metzen in a horde hoodie (racist!). “17 years since Blizzard opened up a new world”, he tells us. And it’s true. Everything has been Starcraft, Warcraft, or Diablo based since the mid-90s. Not anymore.

Overwatch. The cinematic opens with some kids in a museum watching anime footage of an old cyborg task force called “Overwatch”, that had once saved the world from something or other. As they walk through the museum, explaining that Overwatch has since devolved to scattered mercenary task forces, two groups of cyborg dudes including a giant gorilla in a space suit and Ghost Rider’s alter-ego bust through the ceiling and start duking it out, apparently trying to nab old Overwatch technology on display in the museum. The video revealed nothing about the game, besides gorillas in space suits, and the audience was kind of “meh” when the trailer ended. Not to be realistic, Metzen said “It looks you guys really liked that!” and introduced Jeff Kaplan to explain the game behind the cinematic.

Jeff Kaplan described Overwatch as a “team-based multi-player shooter” and kicked off the trailer to the game proper. I don’t really like first-person shooters that aren’t GoldenEye 007, so I don’t really know what I’m looking at mechanically, but the graphics were really impressive. Vibrant and colorful, we see none of the gritty realism that FPS games like to push. The game is set in Japan with an anime vibe, and the character abilities appear to be far from conventional. I saw characters cast spells, teleport through walls, fly around in the air… It’s certainly different. We don’t have to wait long to check it out either, relatively speaking. The beta will launch some time in 2015.

And that’s that. Nothing on Diablo, as I kind of expected. Warlords of Draenor will in fact be a two year expansion, as expected. Legacy of the Void should be out in a year or so, as expected. Heroes of the Storm still exists. Hearthstone is getting a major expansion in only a month, 120 new cards, and an Android edition. That’s pretty sweet. The big deal was all Overwatch. It felt a little anti-climatic to me, but hey, Blizzard have been trying to make an FPS since Starcraft: Ghost like two billion years ago. They’ve had plenty of time to figure out exactly how they want it, and this is not a company known for half-assing their products. It’s not my style, but you can bet I’ll be playing it anyway, at least for a little while.

This is the Weirdest and Most Addictive Thing You’ll See Today: Too Many Cooks

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I have a birthday this weekend so I won’t be around much for the next three days but before I left, I simply had to share this with you!  Apparently, this aired on Adult Swim at 4 in the morning and it’s all anyone is talking about today.

Too Many Cooks!  It starts out as funny.  Then it gets disturbing.  Then it’s funny.  Then it’s disturbing.  And then it’s funny again.  Ultimately, it’s funny and disturbing!

Check out Too Many Cooks and see if you can figure out what the Hell is going on.

Incidentally, Smarf was my favorite character on Too Many Cooks.  And guess what?  He’s on twitter now and, even as I write this article, he is currently tweeting some of his TMC memories.

So, what do you think is going on with the opening credits of Too Many Cooks?  I’m not sure but I do know that I’m going to have that song stuck in my head forever.