Halloween Candy Trading Tutorial

Last day to memorize the strategy. Good luck.

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Country Blues Edition, With Furry Lewis, Belton Sutherland, and Taj Mahal Hosts A Documentary

“If you want to go to heaven when you D.I.E.,
Put on your collar and a T.I.E.
If you wanna scare a rabbit out an L.O.G.,
Just make a little sound like a D.O.G.”

That’s Furry Lewis playing slide on “Kassie Jones,” a song he recorded in 1927. The video is from 1968. A few years later Joni Mitchell met with him and recorded “Furry Sings The Blues” in tribute.

Lewis despised Mitchell’s song and demanded she pay him royalties. “She shouldn’t have used my name in no way, shape, form or faction without consultin’ me ’bout it first. The woman came over here and I treated her right, just like I does everybody that comes over. She wanted to hear ’bout the old days, said it was for her own personal self, and I told it to her like it was, gave her straight oil from the can.”

Belton Sutherland was a Mississipi Delta bluesman. There is no Wiki article for him and little other information about him on the internest. There’s no entry for him in Lawrence Cohn’s “Nothing But The Blues” either. Sutherland was filmed in 1978 by Alan Lomax at Maxwell’s Farm, near Canton Mississippi.

A story about Lomax’ filmAmerican Patchwork” includes one mention:

“…Lomax rounded up folks even he hadn’t heard of, like Mississippi bluesman Belton Sutherland–a master musician who appeared during Lomax’s session with another singer and asked to ‘try’ the guitar.”

That’s a great documentary about Country Blues, hosted by the great Henry Saint Clair Fredericks.

For those of you who find the rough roots of The Blues too tough to listen to, here’s a a WTF moment for a cat instead.

Have a great weekend folks, and we’ll be back tomorrow with more odd funnies.

Saturday Matinee – Chameleon Climbs Water, Chameleon Attacks iPhone & Other Stuff

[via]

Chameleon frightened by a technological thingie.

Where do we go from here? I’m not gonna post Boy George, and the Utoobage offering of a band called “The Chameleons” held little interest for me. Oh wait. I got it.

The Lounge Lizards, 1988, “The Voice of Chunk.”  This experimental group never quite hit, but they had a point. Some might axe me, “Bunk, do you really like this crap?” and my emphatic response is, “No, but at least they tried.”

This is the stuff that I like. Keith Ferguson formed The Tail Gators after he left The Fabulous Thunderbirds, so there’s the lizard link. Big guitars. Yep.

I like this stuff, too, maybe even better:

The Persuasions are an awesome a capella group. Vid from 1971, about the time that they signed their first recording contract, courtesy Frank Zappa.

Have a great weekend folks, and we’ll continue the summer sleigh-ride tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Those Engines Are Entirely Awesome + Train Kept A-Rollin’

Train engines. Awesome. I mean really awesome. REALLY AWESOME.

Okay, I don’t like posting videos that aren’t videos, but Johnny Burnette‘s version from 1956 is worth it.

Yardbirds‘ version from 1968 is cool.

Aerosmith‘s version from 1974 is embarrassing in retrovision.

Tiny Bradshaw‘s original from 1951 is still the best, and it just dawned on me that we’ve posted about this song before.

And with that we’re out of here. Have a great weekend, folks, and be back here for more fun tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee redux – Manual Silo Demolition, Kenny Wayne Shepherd & Joe Cocker

I was distracted yesterday by stuff in meatworld, so this Edition of The Saturday Matinee is a tad late. I promise that it’ll happen again.

This is a jawdropper. They wanted to demolish a masonry silo, yet save the roof  “for the kids.” Rather than using explosives, they used sledgehammers. Watch the whole thing for the commentary, or jump to about 09:00 for the awesome.
[Short cutesy version found here.]

Kenny Wayne Shepherd, with some interesting sidemen. Soylent Green has the scoop. [Caution – some of his posts are NSFK & NSFW, which is unfortunate IMO. He’s got good stuff otherwise.]

Joe Cocker‘s cover of the Lovin’ Spoonful‘s 1966 hit “Summer In The City” is a good ‘un, and fitting, too. It’s so hot here the dog melted.

To our fans (especially the one that runs all night in the bedroom): Please don’t burn up your motor and quit on us until the temperatures cool off a bit. As for the rest of you, see you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Socialism 101, Cheetahbot, Dweezil plays Frank & Frank plays Duane

Communism 101. I laughed, but I cried, because I laughed, because it sums up what’s been going down for a long time. Note that the girl goes Galt.  [via]

CheetahBot is awesome. Now get it to make a U turn, and the time-space continuum will dismantle itself in shame.

Dweezil plays his dad’s classic “Peaches En Regalia.”

Zappa’s cover of the Allman Brother’s classic “Whipping Post” was classic. And with that we’re done for this  classic episode. Have a great weekend, folks.

Saturday Matinee – Not For The Squeamish.


When a giant tortoise attacks. Warning – Not for the squeamish.


Building demolition time lapse. Warning – Not for the squeamish.


Routine traffic stop goes bad. Warning – not for the squeamish.


Cup stacking otter. Warning – Not for the squeamish. [via Jonco.]


Great compilation of pranks from around the world.
WARNING – DEFINITELY NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH.

Eventually we’ll get around to posting vids just for The Squeamish, but until then, have a great weekend folks. See you back here tomorrow, assuming you’re not squeamish.

Saturday Matinee – Vince Taylor, Shakin’ All Over, The Specials & Rufus Thomas

Guess Who? It’s not Who you think it is. Vince Taylor & The Playboys.

Science declares 4 seconds of shaking removes 70% of the water off a wet dog, and 20% lands on you. Do aquatic mammals, like whales, orcas, dolphins & porpoises, shake off air? NEW STUDY! [Your tax dollars at work. Found here.]

The Specials revived ska in the 70s, and did the dog.

Rufus Thomas knew how to walk the dog decades ago, until his demise in 2001.

Due to some unfortunate happenings in the private sector, we’re going to cut this episode short. Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more slices of the stupid pie. =)

Saturday Matinee – Vietnamese Coffee, One Small Plate For Man, Virtual Choir 3.0 & Buster Keaton

How To Make Vietnamese Coffee.” (Hint: Step 1. Go to Vietnam.)

Neil Armstrong’s “That’s one small step for man…” could be translated “Un petit pas pour l’homme,” and the title of the film is “Un petit plat pour l’homme” can be  translated as “One Small Dish For Man”

3rd year animation project (assigned subject “Kitchen”) from Charron/Onectin via email. Very cool.

Eric Whitacre‘s Virtual Choir 3 is awesome and kinda creepy at the same time.

His call for the Virtual Choir 3.0, which included a purpose-built website to make video collection easier and more uniform, set a new record. It included 3476 videos from 76 different nations, including one from Vanuatu. That is the video you see above.

[Found here.]

Buster Keaton’s 1926 comedy The General is based on a real event. In April 1862 a group of Union volunteers hijacked a Confederate train in Georgia and led the rebels on an 88-mile, six-hour chase through the state, tearing up tracks and cutting telegraph lines as they went and releasing cars behind them to slow their pursuers. The conspirators ran out of fuel just short of Chattanooga, their goal, but the Union awarded a Medal of Honor to most of them for the exploit.

“I was more proud of that picture than any I ever made,” Keaton said in 1963. “Because I took an actual happening out of the … history books, and I told the story in detail, too.”

[Found here.]

That’s probably enough stuff to keep you out of trouble for a while. Have a great weekend, folks, and hope tomorrow is cooler.

Saturday Matinee – Playing For Change, Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf & Meatloaf

The Stones‘ “Gimme Shelter” by multinational conglomeration Playing For Change, created by American producer Mark Johnson, is very cool. (Watch for Taj Mahal.)

I find it odd that they would choose that particular song, as it’s forever linked to a free rock festival in 1969 that ended up in tragedy at Altamont Speedway, California, much of it due to the actions of the hired “police” – Sonny Barger & The Hell’s Angels.

The event is best known for having been marred by considerable violence, including one homicide and three accidental deaths: two caused by a hit-and-run car accident and one by drowning in an irrigation canal. Four births were reported during the event. Scores were injured, numerous cars were stolen and then abandoned, and there was extensive property damage.

From the same year, Steppenwolf had a hit with the greatest biker song ever – “Born To Be Wild.” Okay, where do we go from here? Oh wait. I know.

That’s for José from Spain who tutored me on cryptanalysis, and recently discovered the wonderworld of Meat Loaf.

Have a great weekend folks, and be back here tomorrow for Day 3 of our 6th Glorious Year of pure awesomenecessity.