What's he on about now?

In case the articles, essays and opinions throughtout this site just weren't enough for you, here's my online diary (a.k.a. 'blog'). It's as close as you'll come to the inside of my head, so don't say I didn't warn you
(and remember, you can always e-mail me if you love or loathe anything you're about to read)...


   Thursday, March 01, 2007

   SPEAKING OF JAPAN...

...last summer, I wondered if the entire country wasn't insane.
Fortunately, this TV clip from 1978 lets me see just how much progress they've made!

Labels: comic books, insanity, Japan, silliness, the 70s, TV

ah the 70s what a time. Just passing through and thought I'd say hi.

-- Reply posted by  Brian FInch at March 03, 2007

 

Post a Comment

I can't say I'm a fan of the Killers but they've got potential, and it's been interesting watching this young band either
a) experiment with a wide range of sounds in order to develop their own, or
b) rip off the sounds of many other bands in order to develop their own.

Depends on how charitable you're feeling, I suppose.

Their first album Hot Fuss was a stew of 80s new wave pop influences with a hint of 70s glam-rock gender-bending. Quite fun, mostly pointless. Now, lead singer Brandon Flowers (his real name!) freely admits that he listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen while writing their latest album Sam's Town, which leans towards the classic rock. Damned however if the new single "Read My Mind" doesn't sound a whole lot like pre-Achtung U2. When the video hits its Big Pop Chorus, it seems Tokyo is where the streets have no name:



But I give the lads some credit -- their songs are catchy, they're stealing from all the right people, and they asked the Pet Shop Boys to remix the new song (Flowers is a big fan) which I find very peculiar and somehow endearing. So maybe third time's the charm. I'll give 'em another chance. After all, Fountains of Wayne have been ripping off Cheap Trick and the Cars for years and I'm still fond of them:

Labels: Bruce Springsteen, music, Pet Shop Boys, the 70s, the 80s

The debut album from the Scissor Sisters was a gorgeous whirlwind of funk, disco and pop, all delivered with sassy flair and a big kiss to 70's-era Elton John. It did well in North America but was massive in the UK so expectations are high for their new second album which they drolly titled Ta-Dah.

I'm happy to say that I've been listening to it almost exclusively since Saturday and not only is nearly every song a delight, a couple of them have been growing on me since my first listen. The album is every bit as good as the first and the lead-off track, "I Don't Feel Like Dancing," is my favourite. It takes everything that was good about 70's music -- Elton John, country-pop, the Bee Gees, disco -- and compresses it all down to four minutes of pure giddiness! And the video is wildly strange:

Labels: music, silliness, the 70s

argh - until now the only thing to make me feel like dancing has been the girl in the blue dress using the LG steam-washer for a freshen-up. I should have known Your People would show up with a dancing solution that lasts longer than 30 seconds between Hockey: A People's History.

-- Reply posted by  Whisky Prajer at September 19, 2006

 

"My people" -- that still makes me laugh!

Actually, though, the video's sassy babe and hot drummer guy are both straight -- they're the B-52's of the new millennium!

-- Reply posted by  Scott at September 19, 2006

 

Post a Comment

If I wasn't born a geek, growing up in the 1970's certainly sealed the deal. It was a crap decade -- Vietnam, Watergate, the oil crisis, Jonestown, Barry Manilow -- so people tended to become either desperate for nostalgia or fascinated by the future. Seventies pop culture wallowed in sci-fi: there were happy futures, terrifying futures and futures I'm not sure which. "Star Wars" managed to be futuristic AND nostalgic at once!

Somewhere in all that -- way up in the Canadian fringes past even "The Starlost" -- was a cheap little Global TV show called "Science International." Host Joseph Campanella (an actor who's appeared in every TV show ever) wore a groovy black turtleneck against a black background so that his floating head could explain the scientific innovations that would change our lives. Each segment ended with his breathless exclamation, "What will they think of next?" He said it so often that the producers eventually threw their hands up and made it the new name of the show.

That sort of gee-whiz glee is largely passé these days though my old boyfriend Bryce worked for Telus Mobility and excitedly told me in 1999 how hard they were working on video games for cellphone colour video screens. "But what's the point of that?" I asked. "Who cares?" he shrugged, "It's just cool."

Today, though, I got a genuine dose of that old-school 'wow, futuristic!' vibe when I read this piece on what Proctor & Gamble has been working on:

Chemists have developed a powerful household water purification system that puts the cleansing power of an industrial water treatment plant into a container the size of a ketchup packet. The researchers have shown that the tiny packet, which acts as a chemical filter, can be added to highly contaminated water to dramatically reduce pathogen-induced diarrhea — the top killer of children in much of the developing world.
...
Worldwide, approximately 1.5 million children under age five die each year from simple diarrhea acquired from pathogens found in drinking water, according to public health experts. That translates to about 4,000 children dying each day as a result of contaminated water.
...
A single packet can decontaminate 2 ˝ gallons of drinking water, or enough drinking water to sustain a typical household for about 2-3 days, Allgood says. The packet is added to a large container of impure water, stirred, filtered through a cloth to remove impurities and then allowed to sit for 20 minutes. The net result is clear, safe drinking water, the researcher says.

What will they think of next?

Labels: Canada, technology, the 70s