Tag Archives: entertainment

Lists

Music videos

This is the original Jerry C video. For those of you who don’t know about it, he’s a teenager from Taiwan who plays the guitar. It goes without saying that he’s good, or else he wouldn’t have gotten over 20 million views. Judging by his later videos, he favors rock pieces, but fortunately (for him) he decided to play a classical piece in his initial video.

The wonderful combination of a classical score with a rock guitar struck a chord with people, and he became famous overnight. He’s gotten invited on TV shows, and also held concerts. If what I heard was right, he’s also been offered record deals. Here’s his official site.

Richard Hyung-Ki Joo and Aleksey Igudesman are a funny musical duo. They do stuff like this in their shows. Their site is here.

Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand band that likes on-stage banter just as much as playing whimsical music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5tmnBeNv18

Quinn Sullivan is a little boy that can play the guitar and sing. It’s funny to see him sing adult lyrics. I have to wonder if he knows what they mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EkxRGqVUDk

The Yoshida brothers play the Shamisen, which is a traditional three-string Japanese instrument related to the guitar. But they play it very differently, and that’s what sets them apart. They’ve got a TV show appearance video here, but I prefer the more polished music video below.

This pan flute music video from the Andes, called “Espiritu Andino” is pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84pOrGJhrlY

The pan flute is also a traditional Romanian instrument, but the playing style differs there. Here’s one of the undisputed masters of the instrument from Romania, Gheorghe Zamfir, in concert.

Standard
Lists

Quirky music videos

I like quirky, odd music videos, alongside the well-made, polished commercial stuff. My latest favorites from YouTube are enclosed below.

The Kooks have some pretty good music. Here they cover Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvPq54IymMM

This Japanese group put together a stop-motion animation video set to something that could be called music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AeodCMHCFk

Luray Caverns, in Virginia, has a man-made wonder: the Great Stalacpipe Organ. It’s made of little hammers that strike stalactites of various dimensions, producing musical sounds. I heard it in person, and it sounds pretty eerie in that big, dark cave.

Don’t know if these fellows are real policemen, but the song and video are pretty funny. Perhaps it’s because I can’t understand a single word:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD3EzkyASM4

Have you ever heard Bolero played on a single instrument? No? Then have a peek at this:

A talented flute player by the name of Greg Patillo put together some unique interpretations of popular theme songs:

Standard
Reviews

Night at the Museum (2006)

Night at the Museum (2006)Ligia and I saw Night at the Museum (2006) last night, and we loved it. We knew we had to see it when we saw the trailer a few months ago. It looked like a really fun, enjoyable movie, and it sure was! I really like movies that don’t get weird on me — by that I mean the plot is simple and enjoyable, the characters are likable, the storyline is appealing, and the movie is fun to watch. This movie met all of those criteria. Call it a family movie, call it a comedy, a very light romance if you will, but most of all, call it great fun. It’s the kind of movie that doesn’t leave me with a headache or stress me out unnecessarily. My life is busy and stressful enough already. When I watch a movie, I want to relax and laugh a little. I tell you, Night at the Museum worked for me. I loved it, and Ligia loved it too. Highly recommended!

Standard
Places

Impressions from Walt Disney World – Part 3

This post is a continuation of my series on Walt Disney World.

Lights, Motors, Action! is one of the shows at Disney MGM Studios. It runs only a few times a day, and it involves tightly coreographed action and stunt sequences with cars and motorcycles. The setup is that they’re filming scenes for an upcoming action movie. The truth is, they’re just trying to involve the audience a little more. I have mixed feelings about making everything seem like the movies, but I can certainly agree with this: the show and the stunts are great!

The set is built to resemble a small, Southern French town.

Marketplace

There’s an introduction, where the audience is told what to expect, then the stunts begin, with little breaks to allow the crew to set up the various scenes.

Hero and villain

Divide and conquer

Mid-air

Wheelie

Catch my drift

Jet-set

On fire

Finale

I understand the stunt drivers go through a set of tires in three days, and since the show began, they’ve worn down the pavement on the set by several inches, and it will need to be repaved. There’s also a surprise: you’ll get to see Herbie during the show!

Herbie

Standard
How To

ABC’s of Hand Tools

In 1946, Disney made an industrial short for General Motors called “ABC’s of Hand Tools”. While the whereabouts of that movie, which must have been entertaining, are unknown, the handbook is still with us. Cartoon Brew has the details in this post, along with a link to a PDF of that book. This is funny stuff, and still relevant!

➡ Updated 12/10/09: It’s YouTube to the rescue, thank goodness! Found the video, in two parts, and embedded them below. Enjoy!

Watch Part 1 on YouTube

Watch Part 2 on YouTube

Standard