With that in mind, it just seems like the obvious choice to pick the video for Miss Atomic Bomb by the Killers for today’s music video of the day. This video features not only a live action Eric Roberts but an animated version as well!
Eric Roberts appears to be playing some sort of white-suited ghost who specializes in getting women to fall in love with him. The Miss Atomic Bomb of the video is played by Izabella Miko.
This video was directed by Warren Fu, who has also done videos for … well, almost everyone who matters. Among his other directing credits: Hands by The Ting Tings, Derezzed and Lose Yourself to Dance by Daft Punk, Clearest Blue by Chvrches, and, most recently, Rose-Colored Boy by Paramore.
Here’s wishing a happy birthday to Eric Roberts and I hope all of you … enjoy!
It’s all been leading up to this : four years in the making, the sixth and final installment of Johnny Ryan’s formerly-annual (or thereabouts) paean to thoughtless juvenalia, Prison Pit, is upon us courtesy of Fantagraphics Books, and while it’s frankly impossible to conceive of anyone feeling in any way “attached” to protagonist Cannibal Fuckface, much less to the batshit crazy universe he calls home, it’s equally been impossible to conceive of any of the gleefully depraved hyper-violence, horrifyingly sick sex, and/or both that have appeared on pretty much every page of this series since his inception — impossible for anyone but Ryan, mind you.
Which is, of course, precisely how it should be. Ryan boxed himself into a corner with this project from the outset, it seems to me — he literally had no choice but to consistently “one-up” himself, otherwise what the fuck was the point? —…
On April 18, 1938, National Publications presented Action Comics #1, showcasing typical comic book fare of the era like master magician Zatara, sports hero Pep Morgan, and adventurer Tex Thompson. And then there was the red-and-blue suited guy on the cover…
Yes, it’s Superman, strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men… who can change the course of mighty rivers… bend steel in his bare hands… and so on and so forth! Eighty years ago tomorrow, Superman made his debut and changed the course of mighty comic book publishers forever. An immediate hit with youthful readers, Superman headlined his own comic a year later, spawned a slew of superhero imitators, became a super-merchandising machine, and conquered all media like no other before him!
Wayne Boring’s Superman
And to think he came from humble beginnings. No, not the planet Krypton, but from the fertile…
I’m still feeling a little under the weather so I decided to pick a music video for today that pretty much speaks for itself. As you can probably guess from just watching, this video for Tomoyasu Hotei’s Battle Without Honor or Humanity was released to coincide with the release of the Kill Bill soundtrack.
Though most listeners immediately associate this song with Kill Bill, it was actually originally written for and used in another film, 2000’s New Battles Without Honor or Humanity. As any quick perusal of YouTube will show you, this is not only one of Hotei’s most popular songs but also one that exists in several different version. The video above last for 3 and a half minutes. The version of the song on the Kill Bill soundtrack is a minute shorter. I’ve come across versions on YouTube that last anywhere from 6 to 15 minutes. Regardless which version you use, Battle Without Honor or Humanity is a good stripper song. Just saying.
This is also a song that’s fun to listen to while you’re driving, unless of course you live in a city with really bad traffic and are prone to road rage. If that’s the case, you might want to listen to something a little bit more calming.
Anyway, regardless of how good or bad your morning commute may be, enjoy!
Years ago, during my senior year of high school, my AP History teacher taught us about Vietnam by bringing in a movie. He explained that the movie featured some “adult language” and was not always easy to watch. He also said that it was the most realistic portrayal of basic training ever put on film. Seeing as how he was a former Marine himself, we took his word for it.
That movie, of course, was Full Metal Jacket. The class loved the movie, though not in the way that our teacher was hoping. He was hoping that we would pick up on the film’s anti-war theme but instead we were all obsessed with Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann, the tough-as-nails drill sergeant played by R. Lee Ermey. It didn’t matter that Hartmann probably wouldn’t have welcome any of us into his beloved corp. (The majority of the class may have had Private Joker’s wit but they also had Private Pyle’s physisque.) From the minute that Hartmann started yelling at the recruits, the class thought he was the coolest and toughest sonuvabitch of all time. We were supposed to be learning that war was Hell and dehumanizing but we just wanted to listen to Hatmann yell about Mary Jane Rottencrotch and her pink panties.
Looking back, I feel bad for my teacher. He wanted to show us the horrors of Vietnam and instead, he ended up with a bunch of students who wouldn’t stop chanting, “I don’t know but I’ve been told/Eskimo pussy is mighty cold!” Every class debate, there was always a chance that someone would respond to an opposing argument by saying, “You wouldn’t even have the common courtesy to give him a reach around!”
I won’t even get into the number of times that, for the rest of the year, the term “skull fuck” was used in class discussions.
Full Metal Jacket is an anti-war film. The first half may be dominated by Sgt. Hartmann turning the recruits into “perfect” killing machines but the second half features those machines being picked off, one-by-one, by an unseen sniper in a bombed-out building. All of Hartmann’s words about the brotherhood of duty are meant to ring hollow as we watch one teenage girl gun down Marine after Marine. Perhaps they would have if Hartmann had been played by anyone other than R. Lee Ermey.
One reason why Ermey was so believable as Hartmann was because he actually had been a drill instructor. In 1961, R. Lee Ermey was 17 years old and had two arrests for criminal mischief on his record when a judge told him that he could either go to jail or he could join the military. Ermey chose to enlist. He served in the Marines for 11 years, getting a medical discharge in 1972.
He began his film career as a technical advisor to Francis Ford Coppola during the shooting of Apocalypse Now. This led to him playing Sgt. Loyce, a drill instructor in The Boys of Company C.
(The shooting of Apocalypse Now was so drawn out that The Boys of Company C actually ended up getting released a year before Coppola’s epic.)
Originally, Ermey was only hired to serve as a technical advisor on Full Metal Jacket. It wasn’t until Ermey put together an instructional video for Tom Colceri, the actor who had previously been cast as Sgt. Hartmann. When Full Metal Jacket‘s director, Stanley Kubrick, saw the tape, he replaced Colceri with Ermey. (Colceri still appears in the film. He plays the helicopter door gunner who brags about shooting 50 water buffalo.)
Kubrick not only gave Ermey his most famous role but he also allowed Ermey to improvise much of his dialogue, something that was practically unheard of on a Kubrick set. Kubrick also said that it usually only took 2 or 3 takes for Ermey to give him what he was looking for. That was a high compliment from Stanley Kubrick, the man who, during the filming of The Shining, made Scatman Crothers do over a hundred takes of one scene.
Ermey’s performance as Hartmann was so iconic and so quotable that it has become the standard by which all other film drill instructors are judged. It also made Ermey a much-in-demand character actor. Many of the roles that Ermey played were designed to capitalize on his fame as Hartmann. He played the a ghost of a drill instructor in The Frighteners. He was the voice of Sarge in three Toy Story films.
In a few films, R. Lee Ermey got a chance to show that he was capable of more than just playing variations on Sgt. Hartmann. In Prefontaine, he played the legendary coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman. He was a police captain in Se7en and the father of a murdered girl in Dead Man Walking. In the two remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, he was Leatherface’s equally depraved uncle.
R. Lee Ermey died yesterday at the age of 74 but his performances will live on forever.
Here in Massachusetts, every third Monday in April is designated Patriots’ Day, a state holiday commemorating the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord which gave birth to the American Revolutionary War. The annual Boston Marathon is run on this day, as well as an 11:00AM Boston Red Sox game, so it’s a pretty big deal in this neck of the woods. Those of you in other parts of the country can celebrate by watching JOHNNY TREMAIN, Walt Disney’s film about a young boy living in those Colonial times that led up to the birth of “a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”.
Based on the 1943 Newbery Award-winning YA novel by Esther Forbes, the film tells the story of the Revolution through the eyes of young Johnny Tremain (Hal Stalmaster), a teen apprenticed to silversmith Mr. Lapham (crusty Will Wright
Sorry, everyone. As I sit here writing this latest music video of the day post, I’m suddenly feeling a bit ill. I’m not sure if it’s just allergies or if I’m legitimately getting sick. It’s probably a combination of the two. It’s been a very windy day, which is always bad for allergies. It’s also been an unusually cold day, which is strange for Texas in April.
So, anyway, I’m just going to offer up this video of Dada Life performing at Tommorowland in 2010 and I’m going to invite you to …. enjoy!
Remember how last week I said I was going to get caught up with everything? Well, it didn’t happen. I got busy last week so I guess I’ll have to get caught up during this upcoming week. Along with everything else, I’m also planning on watching and reviewing a lot of Italian thrillers and horror films so keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck!
Anyway, I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend and here’s what I got accomplished last week!
(Oh, Friday the 13th is totally a holiday! Why do you think they made so many movies about it?)
Stop Making Sense (1984) — Jeff and I saw great concert film at the Alamo Drafthouse on Monday night. I’ve been listening to the Talking Heads nonstop ever since!
Through the Shattered Lens 