– ask.metafilter answers yet another of my ridiculous nostalgic questions.
Month: November 2004
More behind-the-scenes photos from ‘The Island’
– A sci-fi movie that wisely uses the city of Detroit to approximate the gritty metropolis of the future. These props are probably the closest we’ll ever get to public transportation. Thank you auto industry!
– Tinfoil Hat firmly in place. Crap.
Adrian Tomine did this week’s New Yorker Cover. Just in the past few months, Seth and Adrian Tomine. The only complaint I can possibly come up with is that they inexplicably don’t offer these ‘cartoonist’ covers through their reproduction site. The title of the illustration is “Missed Connections.”
Challenge: Is the approximated cover design of the book being read by the two figures in this illustration based on any real book? Close-up below.
Speaking as a person who has done some programming, the following bits of information are troubling:
- Instances of computer errors in Bush’s favor (In Ohio) have been confirmed (Link, Similar story in NC).
- “One thing that is very strange is how much the exit polls differed from the final results, especially in Ohio. Remember that Ohio uses Diebold voting machines in many areas. These machines have no paper trail. Early in the campaign, Diebold CEO Walden O’Dell, a GOP fundraiser, promised to deliver Ohio to Bush. He later regretted having said that.” – electoral-vote.com (link to O’Dell Quote)
I’m trying really hard to just accept the situation and not get sucked into the crazy conspiracy theories that are already circulating, and I certainly don’t doubt the willful stupidity of my countrymen. But still…
MC5 – ‘The American Ruse’
From: Back in the USA (1970)
Back before I started ‘updating regularly’ again, I wrote a big piece on obscure Canadian 70’s rockers Klaatu (There was a persistent rumor that they were the Beatles re-formed). You can read it here. Jamie Vernon, the man responsible for the recent spate of Klaatu CD reissues posted the following on a Klaatu-centric mailing list the other day:
“Klaatu’s John Woloschuk just called me to ask if I could track down a rap song for him called “Lay You Down”. Apparently, a sample of Klaatu’s 1974 song “Dr. Marvello” is used in it, and John’s starting to see royalty cheques from sales. Because Klaatu has no control over their master recordings outside of Canada, John’s curious to find out the context of the sample under which Capitol in the US agreed to license it.”
“Turns out….the song is 50 (fiddy) Cent and his posse G-Unit from their 2003 Interscope album “Beg For Mercy”. The “clean” version is called ‘Lay You Down’….the “dirty” version is called “Lay Ya Ass Down.”
“Also, their song “A Million Miles Away” has also been covered recently….a rather luxurious royalty cheque has popped up for that one out of the US. Can’t seem to find a source of who recorded it though. Anyone?”
I’ve included MP3 samples of both below. They didn’t even bother to isolate the parts without singing – The Klaatu vocals are audible beneath the raps!
Klaatu – ‘Doctor Marvello’
From: 3:47 EST (1976)
G-Unit – ‘Lay You Down’
From: Beg For Mercy (2003)
Official Venture Brothers Website Live
– From the creative team behind The Tick animated series.