Things I’ve Learned: Wilhelm Scream

It’s been quite the educational week…

Have you ever noticed a familiar sounding scream in a movie? Did it sound like this?

That’s the Wilhelm Scream, popping up in movies since 1951. Lots of movies. Star Wars seems to be responsible for its re-popularization and apparently it’s a big in-joke amongst sound editors.

The suspected screamer is Sheb Wooley. (Also responsible for the Purple People Eater.) Entertaining.

Check out this Short film on it’s history.

It’s a totally weird sounding scream, though.

he used several of the 7 dirty words…

Saw George Carlin last night at Ruby Diamond. He’s as funny as ever. A lot of the material he did will probably appear here. He had some good political stuff and religious stuff. It was an interesting mix of students and old hippies and people like my parents (who I got tickets for the show for Christmas). A good time was had by all.

Also, a random link to the 7 dirty words…it’s always fun.

if elected, I hope he keeps these campaign promises

Can I just say that I am totally in favor of renaming October “Barak-tober”. The other ideas seem sound as well…

there’s something to be said for succinctness

I was looking to see what was on TV tonight and I discovered the following descriptions for tonight’s episode of CSI:

“An entire family is murdered, except for a daughter who may be possessed by the devil. “

Yeah, I would totally watch that. Especially if Lucy and her dad were involved somehow…

Did anyone else hear the taped phone call between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee? I really don’t get it. To me, it makes Clemens seem more guilty. Whenever McNamee asks him “what do you want me to do?” (which he does like 20 times), Clemens never says “just tell them the truth”. Isn’t that what an innocent man would say? He also never asks”why did you lie to the commission?” or any variation thereof .

His lawyer is trying to say that Clemens was carefully trying to make sure it wouldn’t seem like he was coercing a federal witness, but dude, come on. I understand that he shouldn’t say “I want you to tell them I didn’t use steroids” or “I want you to tell them you lied”. You can’t tell a witness what to say (and if he is guilty, that would be telling him to commit perjury). But saying “just tell the truth” really couldn’t be construed as coercion. It’s what he is supposed to be doing anyway.

It’s just such a weird conversation in general, with all the talk of various dying children and missing children’s funerals because of press conferences, and people getting ulcers. In fact, why would these 2 people, who are in fact suing each other even as we speak, get on the phone in the first place? If someone accuses me of a crime and ostensibly ruins my career and shot at the Hall of Fame, I’m really not that interested in chatting with him. Ditto a rich, blow-hard athlete who is suing me for defamation.

And if the whole point of the conversation was for Clemens to try and clear his name by getting McNamee to admit on tape that he lied or whatever…well, that didn’t happen, so why would you release the tape? It just makes you look sketchier. And kind of dumb.

Did anyone else hear the taped phone call between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee? I really don’t get it. To me, it makes Clemens seem more guilty. Whenever McNamee asks him “what do you want me to do?” (which he does like 20 times), Clemens never says “just tell them the truth”. Isn’t that what an innocent man would say? He also never asks”why did you lie to the commission?” or any variation thereof .

His lawyer is trying to say that Clemens was carefully trying to make sure it wouldn’t seem like he was coercing a federal witness, but dude, come on. I understand that he shouldn’t say “I want you to tell them I didn’t use steroids” or “I want you to tell them you lied”. You can’t tell a witness what to say (and if he is guilty, that would be telling him to commit perjury). But saying “just tell the truth” really couldn’t be construed as coercion. It’s what he is supposed to be doing anyway.

It’s just such a weird conversation in general, with all the talk of various dying children and missing children’s funerals because of press conferences, and people getting ulcers. In fact, why would these 2 people, who are in fact suing each other even as we speak, get on the phone in the first place? If someone accuses me of a crime and ostensibly ruins my career and shot at the Hall of Fame, I’m really not that interested in chatting with him. Ditto a rich, blow-hard athlete who is suing me for defamation.

And if the whole point of the conversation was for Clemens to try and clear his name by getting McNamee to admit on tape that he lied or whatever…well, that didn’t happen, so why would you release the tape? It just makes you look sketchier. And kind of dumb.

7 unrelated things

1. I’m coming off a 2 week Christmas vacation. I haven’t gotten that much time off for the holidays since I was in college. Even when I worked for the university, I still only got a few days off, despite the fact that the students were gone for damn near a month. Vacation is good.

2. I was right about Smells Like Teen Spirit (see previous post for details…)
3. It’s cold outside. Now, I realize that cold is a relative concept and many of my yankee/ex-pat friends will not cry tears for my Floridian winter, but the high today is only supposed to be 47 or so and it will be down into the teens tonight. That’s cold around these parts. Although it is sunny and blue skies abound, which beats dreary, rainy cold.
4. Did you know that the University of Central Florida in Orlando is the 7th largest university in the U.S.? That doesn’t seem right.
5. Lynne Spears is releasing a parenting book? Through a Christian publishing house? Words fail me…
6. There’s a new version of American Gladiators scheduled to premier this week. My guilty admission: I loved that show. Actually, I will generally watch any of those competition type shows…World’s Strongest Man, lumberjack games, Pro Bowl Skills Challenge…I’m really not discriminating. I blame too much Battle of the Network Stars and Laff-A-Lympics in my youth.
7. I should have double good luck these days. Not only did I eat my Hoppin’ John yesterday, but I also remembered to say “rabbit rabbit” yesterday morning. Of course, now I have to go knock wood so I don’t jinx it…

I do love a good end of the year top 100 list

Has anyone else been watching VH1’s Top 100 Songs of the 1990’s? That shit is an addictive trip down memory lane. It’s also weird because I tend to get the late 80’s and early 90’s jumbled together in my head, musically speaking. So for a number of these songs, I’m like “dude, that came out in the 90’s?” Like I’m Too Sexy. And Ice Ice Baby? And Gonna Make You Sweat? They just have such an 80’s feel about them. Ditto Jump Jump. That is wiggity wiggity wiggit wack. (Although I prefer Warm it Up.) {an aside, what on earth did we do before youtube?}

Also, we’ve made it all the way to the top 20 and…no Nirvana songs? However you feel about them, that was the band of the 90’s. I’m assuming Smells Like Teen Spirit will be #1 (the episode counting down numbers 20-1 airs tonight), but nothing else? Also, no Brittney yet. 1998 brought us Baby One More Time. You know that is in there somewhere…top 5 for sure. Alas, 100 songs is not very many when you’re talking about 10 years.

Anyway, it’s a fun countdown, and entertaining to have all the above mixed in with Dr. Dre and Christina Aguilera and Eminem and *nsync. Quite a random assortment we had in the 90’s.

an open letter to Jason Lee

Dear Jason,

The Chipmunks? Really?

Sigh.

Look Jason, I’ve been right there with you for a while. Loved Brodie Bruce…to a disturbing degree, come to think of it, considering he was actually kind of a dick. Ditto Banky, a veritable Prince Charming compared to that tool Affleck’s Holden. Loved Skip Skipperton in the little known Mumford (love that Loren Dean as well)…kind of creepy but adorable. Also Puggy in Big Trouble (very odd character, and the hair was disturbing, but he had a good heart). You were the charming guy we were rooting for to get the girl in Kissing a Fool and Heartbreakers (allowing me to ignore the presence of David Schwimmer and Jennifer Love Hewitt respectively). Then you score a big break out role in Almost Famous and ultimately end up as the endlessly charming Earl Hickey. Fine work there, skater boy.

These things engendered a warm feeling and built you a solid base with me, even allowing me to overlook the following: You are a Scientologist.

But now I see you are involved in (nay, starring in) Alvin and the Chipmunks, yet another holiday nightmare that is being inflicted upon us. So much about this whole endeavor is just plain wrongheaded. To wit:

• The Chipmunks were annoying in the 60’s (I cannot change the station fast enough when I hear that Chipmunk Christmas song) and remain so to this day. Why bring that back? What is enjoyable about those super annoying high singing voices? I don’t get it.
• Do we really need another entry into the “frustrated parent figure dealing with mischievous rapscallion-like children” film genre. I know I’m supposed to find the little scamps charming, but I usually just want to smack them.
• I take the same stand I have taken with Scooby-doo, the Grinch, Garfield, and countless others: Cartoons do not need to be remade into live action movies.

Leaving aside all that, Jason, I had just hoped you were better than this. You are the star of a network TV show now, do you really need to do the Chipmunks? And while it is nice to see you all clean-shaven and minus that ubiquitous Burt Reynolds-esque Earl mustache, that’s not enough to get me to see this flick.

A paycheck is a paycheck I guess, and you do have an oddly named child to feed. I just hope little Pilot Inspektor appreciates it…

Strike

So, I’m finally getting around to commenting about the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike. It’s now day 10, and I hope more progress is being made behind the scenes that what I’m hearing, but I doubt it.

First, I feel eminently qualified to comment on the matter. Not because I have any real knowledge of the subject or anything, but just because I love me some TV. I am a huge consumer of their product and it pains me that soon there will be nothing but news, reruns, and crappy reality shows available for my viewing pleasure. (Thank God for Project Runway. And there is my guilty pleasure of America’s Next Top Model…although the reality shows (especially that one) actually screwed over the writers early on.

Anyway, my position on the strike can be summarized as follows: Go writers. It seems undeniably clear that the studios are trying to completely cheat the writers out of fair revenue from the new media formats…much the same way they did with video rights back in the day. This video offers up the clearest description of the issues that I’ve found, all in a concise 4 minute package:

It’s also interesting that the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or the Darth Vader of this piece) is using the lame argument that the full episodes of shows that are available online are simply “promotional” materials. This is complete bullshit. Aside from the fact that they sell ads for these online versions, the web has clearly become a legitimate outlet for television shows. I know lots of people who watch certain shows exclusively online. Whether it’s because all their watching/recording slots for a particular time are filled with higher priority shows, because their Tivo or DVR malfunctioned, or simply because they’re looking for a way to kill some time at work is immaterial…shows are being watched and writers are not being paid. Same deal with iTunes, people are paying for those shows. It’s no different that buying a DVD (another market in which the writers make almost nothing). The irony is that the people who watch shows on the net or buy them from iTunes are exactly the people that the networks want watching their shows…young, early adopters with free time and disposable income.

The actors/writers from The Office (many of the people on that show wear both hats) make some excellent points here:

There are also countless writers blogging about their strike experiences. I’ve been enjoying this one (and not just because he uses the same blogger template as me…). You can also check out the WGA’s site or the unofficial United Hollywood one, where you can sign a petition.

As I’ve said, I have no vested interest in the strike, other than that of any other average TV viewer. I can’t imagine being on strike. Basically, you quit your job and take on a new job that offers no pay, is physically demanding, and can be totally demoralizing as the situation wears on. That has got to be tough. So, I offer my moral support. Good luck to you.