I'm Probably the Only One, But...

I know this is more a result of me being weird and creepy, but does this Edward Sharpe video remind anyone else of Manson Family footage? I can't be the only one who thinks so.

I'm probably the only one who thinks so.

The One Where I Defend Weezer

My very first concert was Weezer at the Blossom Amphitheater when I was 16 (I think?). My dad took me, Alex, and my best friend. Weezer was my favorite band at the time, and I was wholly convinced that it was the best night of my life. I don't know why I thought that. It's not like I slept with Rivers Cuomo or anything. Regardless, I loved them the way only a teenager can love a band (it was the same blind, adoring love I brought to the Smiths, Ben Folds, and bands far more embarrassing). I'm glad they were my first concert, and I'm glad my dad took me, and I'm glad that Little Alex wrote an essay about it and made fun of me for being so annoying and weird. I'm also glad the A.V. Club is around to remind me, and you, and all of us that Weezer isn't the horrible band we all think they are now. I mean, I am still not going to buy that new album. It seems pretty bad. But there was a time when I used to pore over the pages of Spin magazine, reading articles about Rivers Cuomo holing up in his room and writing literally hundreds of pop songs, like a less crazy Brian Wilson. I really thought he was going to do different things, and it makes me a little sad, but who knows? It could all turn around.

Book Club: December

The Talented Winfrey Family H.P. Lovecraft Book Club is still chuggin' along. Don't you worry your pretty little heads about it. I still have about 20 pages to go on The Moviegoer, so no post about that yet (try to contain your anticipation), but I wanted to let you know what December's pick is. In case you want to read along with us? I don't know who I'm kidding. I don't know why I'm telling you. Either way, our pick is 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill.

Alex picked this, and I went along with it because:
1. It's Stephen King's (Uncle Stevie's) son.
2. Ghost stories!
3. It's semi-recent, which should mean less totally-historically-accurate-but-still-uncomfortable racism (more on that when we get to The Moviegoer!)
4. There were three copies at the library.
5. Good reviews from nearly every major publication in the country (that might be a lie, but there were a lot of good reviews).

As always, feel free to read along. There is still one copy at the library, so you'd better snatch that up before someone else gets their greedy little paws on it.

I Don't Think They Sing, They Just Screech in Pain

Let's address the elephant in the room. As you may have noticed (or as you may have NOTED, on my facebook page), posting has come to a standstill. It's that time of year again. Little Alex is home until January, which means that posting will be sporadic at best. Not only are we terrible at remembering to update when we can actually, you know, hang out, but Alex also has limited internet access.
Enough with the excuses! Alex's lack of internet be damned, I plan on keeping the blog going at a plodding pace, at the least. I mean, you are guaranteed a plod. Anything more than that I can't promise.
We have been watching a lot of movies between the both of us. Some have been Gigantic disappointments. But most have been great. Only one, however, is our new favorite movie.
My Best Fiend is a documentary about the relationship between director Werner Herzog and crazy actor Klaus Kinski. Supposedly. What it's really about, you'll find as you begin to watch it, is Werner Herzog telling absolutely insane stories as if they were simply amusing anecdotes. Even if you aren't interested in film, or Werner Herzog, this movie is amazing. I'm not going to front (First rule of The Talented Winfrey Family: No fronting), I have not seen the entirety of a movie made BY Werner Herzog. But I have seen a lot of footage OF Werner Herzog. And I love him. This is, of course, a classic. It's not from My Best Fiend, but it gets across the basic essence of Werner.

You can stream the movie on Netflix or, if you don't have Netflix, you can watch the whole thing on Youtube. It's so easy, you guys! I can't stress enough how great this movie is. It's hilarious, sad, confusing, violent, and hilarious again. In closing, here are seven seconds of Herzog nimbly leaping.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

As much as I like this band, I think the less I know about them the better. What I'm saying is, maybe this isn't the kind of band I want to take home to my mom, because maybe this is the kind of band that likes to wander around in the woods and doesn't like to wear a shirt.

Jim Henson

If I'm to believe Google, Sesame Street's 40th anniversary was last week. Since this blog is nothing if not topical, I decided to make a post about Jim Henson THIS week. Sesame Street was a big, big, big part of our childhood. I can't even count how many times we watched the special about Big Bird going to the hospital (but never the special about firefighters, because Alex was scared of it). And we used to constantly rewatch our library's only VHS tape of The Muppet Show (with the Alice Cooper episode AND the Vincent Price episode). This video, Time Piece, is an experimental short film by Jim Henson. Winfreys (highly) recommend.

Please Go Easy With Me

Finals week, please go easy with me.

Maybe Someday

It's a dream I didn't even know I had...a Gilmore Girls movie. I can't imagine it happening, but who knows? Amy Sherman-Palladino's the one in the crazy hat, she can do what she wants.

Style Blog (For Real This Time)

This is one of the best blogs I've ever found. It's called Nerd Boyfriend, and it's a men's style blog. Kind of. It's actually exactly like my own imaginary men's style blog, but someone else did all the work for me! It's weird to find a website that is so tailored to my own personal interests. Now I can finally Get That Werner Herzog Look!

I think Tom Hanks is our dad.

Tom Hanks trying to remember the melody of a song is eerily similar to Papa Winfrey's strange whistlings/hummings/mutterings about the house. You should hear him do "Born to Run."

Llama Attack

Does it seem to you like maybe this guy is embellishing his story a little bit? I imagine he was like, "Jesus Christ, how am I going to make this seem cooler than it was." Also, A+ to whoever edited this piece.

Saul Bass

Saul Bass is awesome.

Three for Thursday

Carrie Brownstein does this thing on her Monitor Mix blog on NPR called Five for Friday. She posts five songs she likes. But it's Thursday, and I can't think of five songs I want to post (I can think of one, and it's called Together in Electric Dreams). So it's Three for Thursday!

Public Service Announcement

Listen, maybe you got a Netflix subscription because you figured you'd finally be able to find all the weird movies you'd only ever heard about. Well, sorry, because Electric Dreams is not even on DVD. Well...it is, kind of. If you're willing to pay $130.00 for a copy. And that copy is probably (I mean, definitely) a bootleg!
Netflix can't solve all your problems.

More of the Same

We changed the mission of the blog, I guess. Now we just post great songs from 80s movies.

My feelings about this song are summed up succinctly by Youtube user DULABHAILE: "God God! I had forgotten this innocent time in my life." Sure! God God, indeed!

Together In Electric Dreams

If anyone's seen this great looking movie, let me know how it is.

Presented Without Comment

Mrs. Doubtfire

Mrs. Doubtfire is great because it is something that is easy to laugh about, but at the same time it is a legitimately good film. Needless to say, it is a family favorite. I found this on the Mrs. Doubtfire imdb boards, and I was impressed.

An Education

I love Ohio, but I do not love waiting for movies to come out here. Even though An Education came out in New York and LA weeks ago, it just came to Cleveland this weekend. Of course, I made H. take me. We were late (like usual) so we missed the first few minutes. After another ten minutes or so had passed, H. leaned over and whispered, "So...is he supposed to be older than her, or what?" And I realized that I'd neglected to tell him anything at all about the film we were seeing.
An Education, as you probably know, is about a high school girl (Carey Mulligan) being seduced by a mysterious older gentleman (Peter Sarsgaard). It was a really fantastic movie and I recommend it. The role of a charming creep is tailor-made for Peter Sarsgaard, who brings an air of creepiness to everything he does, anyway. And as a bonus, the film costars the teacher from Rushmore, the one neither Max Fischer nor Herman Blume could resist.
This is one of those movies where you know from watching the trailer whether you'll like it or not. That's not an original thought of mine, just something I heard some ladies saying in the bathroom right after the movie. They were right, though.

Mother, Jugs and Speed

I like to think I'm a pretty good detective. Actually, I know I'm a pretty good detective. I'm nosy, stubborn, and I don't respect other people's privacy, which means that I can generally get to the bottom of any mysterious situation. But sometimes, the answers elude even me, and I'm forced to rely on fate.
Alex and I heard this crazy disco song on the first season of The Muppet Show a couple of years ago, and I've been trying to locate it ever since. I kind of forgot about it, until H. and I were watching this awful/amazing movie on TV Saturday night. It was after SNL, which is obviously the time that all the classics are shown. The movie was called Mother, Jugs & Speed. It was an ambulance comedy (seriously, I don't know any other way to describe it!) from the 70s starring Bill Cosby (Mother), Raquel Welch (Jugs) and Harvey Keitel (Tony? I know!). It was so bad.

Anyway, as the end credits rolled, I recognized the song. It was THE SONG from The Muppet Show. I guess the song "Dance" by Paul Jabara is like true love: you can only find it when you aren't looking.
It's pretty ridiculous on its own, but it's infinitely better when a puppet is singing it.

Wes Anderson

It's no surprise that The Talented Winfrey family likes Wes Anderson. We are (at least I am) very excited about The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is coming out Friday. In honor of this new release, you should watch this cool series of videos. Sure, there are people that dislike Wes Anderson, but you are not one of those people.

Sky Pilot

If someone were to be like, "Hey, Alex, I'm sorry to do this to you, but for the rest of your life, you have to just sit down and watch one video over and over again." Would I be mad at the person? It's impossible to say. I'd probably look at them and say something like, "This is for real this time?" and they'd probably slowly nod their head. Then I would say, "Well, do I have time to make a phone call at least?" They would look at me, with a tear in their eye, and say, "No." "Alright then," I would say, trying to maintain my composure, "bring on Sky Pilot."

Eastbound and Down is one of the greatest shows ever made, and this is one of the best parts from the season finale. If you haven't already, watch every episode.

What the what?

If there's one thing we all love, it is this season of Parks and Recreation. It's knocking it out of the park this year. We especially love Nick Offerman's character, Ron Swanson. I was trying to find some video of Nick Offerman on youtube, and instead I found this AWESOME video.

I just wonder if these people still made these videos before the invention of youtube. Like, did they just make them and keep them on their home computer? When their friends came over, were they like, "Hey, you know that actor that we love, but have no relation to? I compiled a bunch of pictures of him and set it to some shitty song. Check it out!"

Cool Video

Hecq Vs Exillion - Spheres Of Fury from Tim.Chris.Film on Vimeo.

This video is really neat. It's very well edited and the color grading is amazing. It was shot with a Canon 7d, which is a new digital SLR. I'm just saying, that would make a good Christmas present. It's only a couple thousand dollars.

While We're On the Subject...

Okay, so we're not really still on the subject of Carly Simon, but I'm always thinking about her. Posting that video yesterday got me thinking about one of my favorite McSweeney's articles...A Retort to Carly Simon Regarding Her Charges of Vanity

Do you know who I am?

This is a record review of Eugene Mirman's new album, God is a Twelve-Year-Old Boy With Asperger's. The album was very funny, although it was not quite as good as his last two. However, who cares, because even not-quite-as-good Eugene Mirman is still amazing comedy. If I can real talk for a second, this was really just an excuse to post this video.

You're So Vain

Alex texted me today that he was watching Bonnie and Clyde and realized that he didn't like Warren Beatty. You and Carly Simon both, I said. Even though Mama Winfrey says she loves Warren Beatty and Papa Winfrey calls him "the thinking man's actor," Carly Simon was so pissed at him that she famously wrote one of the best songs of all time...You're So Vain. Apparently there's debate over who the song is actually about, but if you read one of my favorite books, Girls Like Us, you'll learn that it's almost definitely about Mr. Beatty.
I'll bet he thinks this song is about him.

Hannah Takes the Stairs

This weekend H. and I watched Hannah Takes the Stairs, renamed Hannah Who Cares? by Alex. It's yet another entry in the unfortunately-named genre known as mumblecore (ugh, who writes this stuff?). Greta Gerwig plays the titular Hannah, and she's pretty titular if you know what I mean (I'm trying to awkwardly say she is always taking her top off). I was surprised at how much weird, non-necessary nudity was in this movie. Not that I was offended, because who cares, but the movie began with a shower scene and ended with a bathtub scene (I get what you're doing there, Swanberg).
The actual movie itself was really boring, which is hardly a damning critique coming from me. I've been known to enjoy a boring movie in my time, and I enjoyed this one well enough. Mostly I was just frustrated though. A lot of filmmakers are involved in this movie--Andrew Bujalski (weird dude of my dreams), a Duplass Bro., Todd Rohal--but I really can't figure out how so many people could work on a movie with so little going on. The plot is pretty much this: Hannah breaks up with her boyfriend, starts dating another guy, sleeps with his best friend, ends the movie playing the trumpet in a bathtub with said dude. Which is fine. Whatever. Great movies have consisted of less. I guess what turns me off so much is the air of importance that this movie has. Like Hannah's quest for happiness is so noble or unique, when we all know that it's not. Near the end of the film she has this insufferable conversation with one of her coworkers (right before they have sex, natch) where she tells him that she feels bad because she's just "using him" to make herself feel better, but he's a real person with problems and she shouldn't just turn to him for an unburdened good time! Welcome to Things We All Figured Out When We Were Twelve.
And, honestly, I can't get behind any character who would dump not just a Duplass Bro. but Andrew Bujalski (who just can't catch/write himself a break). She's tossing aside independent filmmakers like they're her clothing or something. We should all be so lucky. H. was not at all impressed by Andrew Bujalski, but I've always found him quite charming! I know he's kind of funny looking (and he has very hairy legs, as we find out) but he always comes across as sweetly vulnerable and nice.

I'm just saying. I know which one I'd pick.
There were a lot of things I didn't like about this movie, but I'm glad it exists. It's nice that someone can make a low-budget movie in a month with their friends and then have that movie shown all over the world. More people should do that! I just hope they're, you know, a little more interesting.

Agreed.

When Paris, Je T'Aime came out, Alex, Papa Winfrey and I went to Columbus to see it. We didn't tell Dad that it was 18 short films because he always (ALWAYS) hates short films. Anyway, he was very disappointed when he found out what we'd dragged him to, and after we watched it, we were disappointed too. That movie was just very silly, you guys, and I don't know why they need to make them for more cities. I feel like anthology films are always bad news, so I loved this article from the A.V. Club: 17 salvageable segments from multiple-director anthology movies.
They listed the only Paris, Je T'Aime segment that I really loved: Alexander Payne's short. It was cute, and hilarious, and everything else was super boring.

Pretty Funny

What was I searching for when I found this video? There's only two options really, and both are kind of weird. Either way, why isn't this the official music video?