Hearing recorded voices?

What? Interesting (weird) essay by Nigel Heyler “Virtual Voices: Ghost Riders in the Sky” explores the metaphysical underbelly and cerebral topside of voice amplification technology; exploring “acousmatics,” automated voices, hypnotism, schizophrenia, and noting the “…somewhat grisly” corollary to [Thomas] Edison’s desire to link technology to the life beyond. Article quote checks Adolph Hitler; “Without the loudspeaker we would have never conquered Germany” (Hitler in The Manual of German Radio, 1937).

Your potential goes on forever:
Speaking of foreigners, this thing is already all over the internet, but if you haven’t seen Aleksey Vayner’s totally pumped “Worst Video Resume Ever” (oh, link removed – see below) then prepare to come to the realization that without-a-doubt you’re simply the best, better than all the rest (or at least realize that Vayner simply is). Background info at IvyGate.com. UPDATE: Whoops! The video has been taken off YouTube by not-laughing parties, but the guys at IvyGate.com will keep you on top of everything. Note to self: you’re weak.

Evangelical crank call cable access:
Speaking of Satan, WFMU’s Scott Williams has collected a bunch of clips from an ongoing cable access show in Cedar Park, Texas called Johnplex, where the oddly accessorized hosts crank-call Christian evangelist types. Long, debate-y, often very strange conversations ensue live on the phone, sometimes for the length of the show. Scott YouTube-linked some of the best.

Destined Destiny:
Must-see promo video from a forthcoming unauthorized autobiography of George W. Bush. Concocted by the creators of The Onion, the book will allow “Bush” to alter the image of him created by “…the media criticizers” and “counter that propaganda with a little bit of common-sense biographizing.” We’ll have to see how “funny” this parody is (Oct. 17th), but the promo video is brilliant.

Kuchar Brothers:
Speaking of moving pictures, Jim and I watched Mike and George Kuchar‘s The Sins of the Fleshapoids last night. The film has been hen-pecked so much in underground cinema circles, that finally seeing it after all these years was a bit of a letdown. However, all was redeemed when we watched the two other films on the disc (all included on Other Cinema’s excellent new Kuchar Bros. DVD); The Secret of Wendel Samson (starring weirdo pop artist Red Grooms) and The Craven Sluck. We were alternately hypnotized and choking-with-laughter. Truly odd – they were all some of the funniest, weirdest, dreamiest films we’ve seen in a long time – the best thing we rented from Netflix all month.

I think you’re very:
Here’s the very rarely seen video for The Flying Lizards’ “TV” single, which I’m not sure even aired much of anywhere when it came out in 1979 (early 80?). YouTube has pretty much all of The Flying Lizard’s videos now, which were pretty hard to come by just a few years ago. Here’s the video for “Money” (here’s a Top of the Pops ‘live’ performance of that song) and here’s the video for the much later “Dizzy Miss Lizzie.” By the way, my Flying Lizards website is back up (about 80% of it) following a long hiatus after leaving it’s original server.

Boody’s Babe:
The Animation Archive re-prints an entire comic by a little known 20th century funny pages-guy; Boody Rogers. Read his totally screwy Babe from the 1970’s (a very ‘early MAD‘ parody of L’il Abner) in it’s entirety. Here’s a bit more info on Boody Rogers, here a tiny bit more. Slightly offset color printing and Benday dots have never been so exquisitely preserved!

Hopey’s crow’s feet:
Speaking of great comics… gasp! Someone has created an entire timeline for all of the characters in Jamie Hernadez’s Love and Rockets comic book series. I squibbled over every obsessive detail. There’s a lengthy character index too (in case you didn’t know – Love and Rockets is still being created after a brief hiatus in the 1990’s, and all the characters are now aging in real time).

Haw Satan!
Aw, and what the hell, here’s Daniel Clowes’ early and still spot-on Jack Chick parody Devil Doll, in it’s entirety. Now that Ghost World and Art School Confidential have been made into films, will someone please make this tiny Satanic comic into possibly one of the most hysterical films of all time? Maybe it could be animated.

Best worst album cover:

The ex-hippie, anti-hippe, hippie drop out band Hot Poop were the apocalyptic, “no borders”-types who probably cheered on the Manson Family murders and laughed at Altamont. Hot Poop recorded their one and only LP Does Their Own Stuff! in 1971, and topped off the collection of “songs” with an album cover concept unrivaled in it’s purity of vision. The front photo features all members of the band in a barn, shooting up (except one, who seems to have expired), and to the left of them is a guy taking a dump. On the back, the whole band is gleefully flashing the camera, except all of the male and female genitalia have been reversed. Here’s a little scoop on them. The album has just recently been re-issued on CD. Yep. Royalties?

We put the “terror” in terrorism:
Suffer from “air rage?” Fear someone on your flight might be suffering from “air rage” which gives you a “fear of flying?” Has your multilayered fear caused you to want to check up on and mathematically calculate every possible airplane crash statistic? Airline by airline? Airport by airport? You’ll fine everything you want to know at AirSafe.com. Is this the scariest website ever?

Well-known racial epithet:
“To Slur or Not to Slur?” – Gawker.com does some neardish search-query math concerning the oppressive “n-word” debate.

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