Monthly Archive for March, 2010

The forgotten pearl of the mockumentary style: Look Around You

Published on 15 March, 2010 in BLINDED BY SCIENCE and FILM AND VIDEO. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

BBC / Look Around You / comedy series

Look Around You was created by Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz in 2002 and aired on BBC2. A hilariously funny, masterfully twisted spoof on a typical television learning series — one you may have watched or perhaps were forced to watch in school long ago. The sarcastic wit and love for non-sequiturs in this programme is what keeps us coming back again and again. The music by Gelg (Serafinowicz) is also a treat. Popper and Serafinowicz have moved on to other great comedy projects such as the religion of Tarvu, The IT Crowd and Peep Show.

You will learn about sulpher, germs, music, ghosts, water and your vision amongst other interesting subjects. We are proud to present to you (possibly momentarily) the Look Around You programme on Maths:

Look Around You (series one and two) is available on DVD if you can find it, or rerunning on BBC2, BBC America and Adult Swim.

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The forgotten pearl of literary disco lyrics: Lady Marmalade and the Beast

Published on 10 March, 2010 in FILM AND VIDEO, SMART WORDS and SOUND OF MUSIC. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

FRENCH LIT / La Belle / dirty disco

Walt Disney’s and Jean Cocteau’s adaptations of Beauty and the Beast are both based on the very well-known eponymous fairy tale which was written by the French Madame Le Prince de Beaumont (1756). A fairy tale re-written for children, taming it down from the far more sensational original.

The first Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) was written by Madame de Villeneuve in 1740. In her tale, the prince changed into a beast not only superficially but also in manners and mind. Every night, at dinner, the Beast asks the ritual question: “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir, la Belle ?” which translates these days, not to a polite “Do you want to go to bed with me, beautiful?” but actually a lot more like “Do you wanna F*** me!?” And of course the princess is shocked and disgusted.

Now if you remember a very famous song, Lady Marmalade (written by Bob Crewe & Kenny Nolan, produced by Allen Toussaint) performed by some curiously-named Patti LaBelle. Patti even uses the capital “B” in the second part of her last name (pseudonym), as in the quite non-subtle original French version. Uncanny similarities? We speculate that this is indeed the true origin.

Now you know what Patti is really singing, that demanding Diva!
Enjoy this original song more than ever before with all of its expletives:

Gitchi gitchi ya ya da da
Gitchi gitchi ya ya here
Mocha Chocalata ya ya 
Creole lady Marmalade 
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir ?!
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The forgotten pearl of contemporary love songs: Chat Room Fever by BFF

Published on 4 March, 2010 in SMART WORDS and SOUND OF MUSIC. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

BFF / Soft Tools / chatroom fever

Love songs come and go each year and so do the tears and stomach pain. What we’ve unearthed is truly the supreme love song of the 21st century. Surprisingly, it isn’t performed by Sinatra. It isn’t Barry Manilow nor Rod Stewart. It isn’t Justin Bieber or Ben Folds Five. It’s the band called BFF with their honest lament, Chat Room Fever.

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The forgotten pearl of saving life as we know it: The Mushroom.

Published on 3 March, 2010 in BLINDED BY SCIENCE, FILM AND VIDEO and OUTER DIMENSIONS. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

MYCELIUM / Fungi / mushroom

As fantastical as it may sound, nature really did create neural networks, exposed in ancient beliefs, Hayao Miyazaki movies (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle) and more recently Cameron’s Avatar. In actual reality this network is made up of mycelium (fungi, mushrooms) and can nourish the hungry, heal the sick, make bad people good and save the universe. Now this is serious, folks, pay attention. If you don’t have much time, jump to 8 minutes into this video and listen to the six ways mushrooms may save the earth:

Experience this excellent talk on saving mankind by mycologist Paul Stamets
via TED (below) or on YouTube (mobile-compatible).


FUN GUY DR. STAMETS ON TED #258

Fungi will break down toxins, turning them into simple sugars and carbohydrates. It will cure disease like H1N1 (known as Swine Flu in the USA) and the common cold. It can also do things like save all of humanity. Mycilenial wizard Paul Stamets explains how mycelium (fungi, mushrooms) was integral in our evolution and can be utilized to save the earth. His talk on TED is a concise 15 minutes of pure amazement, spanning from the beginning of earth until the crisis of contemporary man and of course some pretty far out things as you can imagine with any talk about mushrooms.

Much of the fungi thrives only in the Old Growth Forests of the Pacific Northwest, USA. We need to act fast and preserve these forests. More information was found on Save Our Old Growth dot org. This is some fairly random silliness:

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