Category: Videos

Saturday Matinee: The Gullible and the Hustlers

Penn & Teller are national treasures, and I’d post more from their cable show (“That’s B.S.“) except for some unnecessary language. This one has “a-h” in it, but otherwise it’s a great example of how gullible some folks can be. [More information about the dangerous substance described in the video may be found here.]

This clip’s from the British show “The Real Hustle.” It shows that anyone who even thinks of trying to beat 3-Card Monte is gullible and then some.

Here’s the original Monte, with the same outcome. I suggest if you see these betting scams that you run away quickly… you can lose just by watching. And if you think you’ve got the talent to run the game yourself, your health insurance better be paid up. Harry Anderson’s book “Games You Can’t Lose” is a pretty good exposé of scams like these also.

Lastly, here’s Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott, in 1961’s “The Hustler.”

P.S. If you thought you were gonna hear “The Hustle” on this website, well, um, you can find that annoying song on your own.

[The Caption Contest is still open. And TackyRaccons was nominated for the iBlogCup again for January. Vote for the underdogs, and vote for TR here.]

Saturday Matinee: Wilson!

The late Cajun Chef Justin Wilson was the only cooking show I ever watched. With more holidays on the way, here is the master to show you how to make Chicken Gumbo with Andoille. Be pay attention so’s to done did it right, I gare-on-tee.

Speaking of Wilson, here’s a claymation version of Jackie Wilson’s “Reet Petite” that can only be described as bizarre:

Then there’s the Wicked Wilson Pickett, here with “99-1/2”:

My favorite Wilson of all won Best Supporting Actor for his role in the movie “Castaway” without speaking a single word due to great writing. Here’s a video of his complete monologue, in 3-D:

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Saturday Matinee: Rock and Roll Wheels

“Rocks” by Das Rad (The Wheels).

Vodpod videos no longer available. from www.videosift.com posted with vodpod

 

Rocks, and Rolls by God, with wheels.

 

Put ’em together and watcha got?

Rock N Roll with Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, as if you hadda ask.

[LATE UPDATE BONUS: CLASSIC TIRE ROLL.]

Saturday Matinee: PoorHamsterElPasoPleasePleasePlease

Here’s the original English version of “Poor Hamster.”

Pleasant harmonies with a good plot and a twisted father with a lot of video editing time makes this a must see. Bunk has been out of the loop on this one, but gives it 5 stars. (2 stars go to the cloying animated version.)

A related song immediately comes to mind. Here’s Marty!

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I don’t know how Marty Robbins pulled this one off, but here’s the MTV clip of his hit “El Paso” from 1959. The late Imogene Coca appears in a cameo as “Bellina.”

And speaking of Ike Turner, he passed on to Rock N Roll Heaven this past week.

Ike and his Kings of Rhythm recorded what’s regarded as the first Rock N Roll hit in 1951 with “Rocket 88.” Regardless of what you think of him, Ike & Tina Turner’s Rhythm & Blues Review was also very influential, but without the Ikettes, and especially Tina, he’d have been left as a footnote in the Cobra Records archives. (Ike’s in the gray Nehru jacket in the middle, but who’s that white guy on rhythm guitar? Steve Cropper?)

This is the best version of James Brown‘s “Please Please Please” that I’ve ever heard. Tina was amazing when Janis Joplin was still taking notes.

[“Poor Hamster” English version from here. Marty Robbins’ pic from here. His video is from the UToobage. Ike & Tina from here.]

Saturday Matinee: Past Future & Present Past

Vodpod videos no longer available. from s166.photobucket.com posted with vodpod

No Way. Can’t happen. Get outta here. [Via Snopes.]

1960 precursor to Star Trek from East Germany, according to the U-to0bage description:

Here’s a look at “the world’s largest supercomputer” in the socialist utopian future predicted by a 1960 East German science fiction film

The movie is “Der Schweigende Stern,” released in the west as “First Spaceship on Venus.”

Like other Soviet-bloc films, it forecast a utopian future in which socialist scientific advancement led the world.

In this scene, the scientists are using the supercomputer to decipher an alien message recorded on a device ejected from an alien spacecraft before it crashed.

And speaking of Star Trek, one of the funniest Saturday Night Live clips, (with William Shatner as Captain Kirk, Chevy Chase as Spock, Bill Murray as Bones, on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise after the series was canceled) should have appeared below. But NBC apparently convinced uT00B and g00ggle to drop all the video links for copyright violations. It’s as if NBC wanted to erase all evidence of the years when Saturday Night Live was actually funny.

So here’s this gem [originally scheduled for a later post]: The Dap-Kings featuring Sharon Jones. Music & video uses 1960’s technology for recording and taping this modern band with the stylings of early R&B. “Almost Aretha” is a pretty good compliment.

Remember Always: 7 December 1941

[The regular Friday .gif posting will resume next week. –Bunk]

[UPDATE 080704- I’d love to know why that excellent video was yanked from YouTube. I replaced it with this one.]

Saturday Matinee: Ken Nordine’s Word Jazz

Ken Nordine… the voice, the guy you’ve heard, but never knew it…

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Best of Word Jazz is available on cd via Rhino Records. Ken Nordine’s late 1950’s and early ’60’s work is bizarre. Here’s Bunk’s review [from Amazon] a few years ago:

“Late at night, toss this into your cd player, press pause.

“Turn off the lights.

“Turn on the TV. Turn off the sound. Flip to channel 3…

“Static…

“Hit play attention…

“Ken Nordine is the comforting yet oddly disturbing voice in your head that you try to ignore, but can’t; he’s the Twilight Zone for your ears.”

But don’t take my word for it. The liner notes include this gem of a description:

“Ken Nordine, yea I know that guy. I heard his voice 1000 times, he’s the guy in the bus station that says “go ahead I’ll keep an eye on your stuff for you,” and you see him the next day walking around town wearing your clothes. He broadcasts from the boiler room of the Wilmont Hotel with 50,000 watts of power. I know that voice, he’s the guy with the pitchfork in your head saying go ahead and jump, and he’s the ambulance driver who tells you you’re going to pull thru. He’s the guy in the control tower who talked you down in a storm with a hole in your fuselage and both engines on fire. I heard him barking thru the Rose Alley Carnival strobe as samurai firemen were pulling hose. Yea he’s the dispatcher with the heart of gold, the only guy up this late on the suicide hotline. Ken Nordine is the real angel sitting on the wire in the tangled matrix of cobwebs that holds the whole attic together. Yea Ken Nordine, he’s the switchboard operator at the Taft Hotel, the only place in town you can get a drink at this hour. You know Ken Nordine, he’s the lite in the icebox, he’s the blacksmith on the anvil in your ear.” –Tom Waits, 1990

For some reason, I have this subtle urge to buy 501 Jeans…

Saturday Matinee: Happy

The Beat Farmers, featuring the late Country Dick Montana singing “Happy Boy.”

A message from the makers of Happy Fun Ball.

Now for our Feature Presentation: “Happy.”

Everybody’s Heard About the Bird

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“So, what do you do for a living?”
“I ride birds. Big birds, you know? Birds that can be ridden.”
“Right. You are a bird rider. What does that really mean?”
“The bird is the word.”

“I don’t understand. Is it dangerous?”
“Yep. You can get flipped.”
“You mean the bird can flip you off?”

“The bird? Oh yeah. Ironic, huh. It happens.”

[Photo with video via l3utterfish.]

Saturday Matinee: One Domino Trashes a Town, and unrelated stuff

According to Arbroath, this was Guiness’ most expensive television advertisement to date, costing 10m pounds (about $2.1 million US bucks). Filmed in a village in Argentina, the whole town came out to watch. If our crack webminers can find a link to a “making of” video, we’ll update this post, but it’s more likely we’ll just tip a stout and be done with it.

Totally unrelated to the video above, our crack webminers turned up a video from 1970, from the Flip Wilson Show. This broadcast changed my life… or at least a good part of it.

The band appeared at Woodstock. Yes, that Woodstock, 1969. These guys played alongside Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Crosby Stills & Nash, Mountain, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe & the Finch, Richie Havens, Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, Melanie, Joan B. Depressed, Bobby Bieber and the SlimJims, Brittney Spears, etc.

Bunk was too young to attend Woodstock, but Bunk was allowed to watch TV. This is what Bunky witnessed at his grandparents house and loved it. ShaNaNa was IT.

This was Bunk’s introduction to DooWop. ShaNaNa sent me on a mission to hear the original versions by the Marcels, the Paragons, Dion, Gene Chandler, the Isley Brothers, the Zodiacs, the Del-Vikings, the Chips, the Chords, the Channels, Harvey & the Moonglows, Shep and the Limelights, the Ronnettes, the Shirelles, Leon Redbone, Led Zeppelin, Dread Zeppelin, Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Police, the Ramones, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, the Stray Cats, Frank Zappa, the Aquabats, the Skatalites, Moms Mabley and the Beat Farmers (featuring the late Country Dick Montana)… and not necessarily in that order. Oh, and I forgot the Solid Voidz featuring Big Don P.

Fill in the band(s) I might have missed in the comments section.