Rambling and blogging for over 8 years, from good food and drink around town, eclectic electronic music, absolutely anything to do with digital media, throw some sport (more than likely cricket) in and the odd personal experience — as seen through my viewfinder.
A clip from “The Scene” in 1982 with Shari Vari by A Number of Names - one of the cuts that started it all. Perhaps the get-ups could serve as inspiration for the next Paradise Lost party.
Some bread and cheese and fine white wine
Designer chic is a matter of time
Could this be the real thing?
Or is this just another fling?
Seen by millions nationally
L’uomo, Vogue, Playgirl, G Quarterly
Because he’s down on his etiquette
Shari Vari is really it
Chorus
Shari Vari
Shari Shari Vari
Smoking on his cigarette
Listening to his car cassette
Cruising with his hot playmate
In his Porsche Nine Two Eight
Heading for the highest heights
For the climax of the night
The people there they just won’t quit
Because the music’s really it
Chorus
Shari Vari
Shari Shari Vari
Chorus
Shari Vari
Shari Shari Vari
Smoking on his cigarette
Listening to his car cassette
Cruising with his hot playmate
In his Porsche Nine Two Eight
Heading for the highest heights
For the climax of the night
The people there they just won’t quit
Because the music is really it
Directed by Spike Lee and starring a youthful Lawrence Fishburne.
Hip Hop pioneers Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame making them the first rap/hip hop group to be honoured (yes - I know that sounds a little weird, but you wouldn’t expect say Aerosmith to be inducted into the Hip Hop hall of fame now would you?).
The early innovators of the sound we know as hip hop will be acknowledged on March 12 in New York City alongside R.E.M, Van Halen and Patti Smith and the Ronettes. Flash is credited for the creating the process of blending two breakbeats together, thus creating one of the fundamental formulas for hip hop music.
Australian fast bowler Brett Lee shows us that his talents go beyond the green fields and picket fences.
In the song - ‘Your The One For Me’, Lee plays the part of a blond Westerner trying to win the heart of a Hindi-speaking young woman by singing and playing guitar. Bhosle translates for him, teaches him to speak and sing Hindi himself. Check the video for yourself and make your own judgement on this quality piece of music.
Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg collaborated on a music video for a new holiday gift idea on Saturday Night Live - Dick in the Box. Haven’t seen it yet? Here it is.
Not everyone gets to see the steps in between the time the model walks in the room to the time the artwork is complete and sent to print.
We all know how make-up can transform a person’s look, but do you really know what happens on desk of the Mac operator as they take a copy of Photoshop and wield their light pen like a craftsman uses his chisel, carving up the initial creating, sculpting and re-shaping until the original product is no longer identifiable.
Watch. Be surprised. Be saddened. Our chase for perfection is such an unfortunate and unforgiving indictment on Western culture today.
What rates that shouldn’t? What’s been missed? I can say there’s a lot of clips I’ve not seen or even heard off since I disconnected myself from the land of MTV music in about 1991, and just by looking at some of the artists featured, there’s going to be a lot of music I’m sure not to like - but I’m not going to cast aspersions on any one artist as yet, except perhaps Fatboy Slim - the one artist whose music I can is utter garbage.
However, we’re not talking solely music, we’re talking the video as well - I’m sure there’s plenty of video clips for songs that you dislike but think the footage is fantastic… anyway. The commentary from the team at Stylus isn’t bad either, here’s a sample -
The power of the music video writ large. NWA were straight-up pussy, a ragtag group of geeks who’d lose a straight man-on-man dust up with Crowded House. Ice Cube’s gait here in particular gives the impression that his spine is constructed entirely from marshmallow. But they learned from Mussolini: look grander by being shot from beneath. Add to this camera trick people walking around with their shoes on fire, masturbatory gun craft, cops with cartoon moustaches, lingering cartographer friendly map shops, Eazy E getting skin like the Fresh Prince returning to West Philadelphia, and you’ve just made the CPT Chess Club look a) cool and b) like the kind of guys who could cause a kerfuffle. So iconic that Rockstar managed to create an entire video game from it.
The cruising altitude of a jumbo jet is around 35,000 feet. Imagine jumping from a balloon at three times that height.
Project Excelsior was a series of high altitude parachute jumps made by Captain Joseph Kittinger of the United States Air Force in 1959 and 1960.
His only protection, a pressure suit - he made three ascents in a helium balloon. The first - Excelsior I on November 16, 1959 from 76,400 feet. His stabiliser chute deployed early, tangling around his neck. He was sent into a spin, tumbling at 120 revolutions per minute, sustaining upwards of 22G’s and causing him to lose consciouness. Luckily, his main chute opened at 10,000 feet and he survived.
Only three weeks later, his second jump was successfully completed from a height of 74,700 feet.
The third and last jump set the world record for the highest parachute jump and the longest parachute freefall, both of which still stand today. This ascent was to an incredible height of 102,800 feet, some 31.3 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.
Here’s a sequence from one of my all-time skate videos - Ban This. This particular clip featuring Ray Barbee. Still to this day, this is one of my favourite street skating sequences. So smooth, and even he makes the No Comply look fluid and graceful, when everybody else was making it jaunty and staggered. An effortless execution of some of the more simple tricks, probably some tricks you don’t see these days. No Comply, Ollie to axle stalls, kickflips… just elegance.
Now, if I could only find my copy! The high-frame rate slow-motion sequences of Mike McGill and Tony Hawk skating vert could also be defined as masterclasses in the art of halfpipe skating.
