Nine Inch Snails

Someone please tell me how a video about snails begging to be salted made it on the Disney Channel.

Les Lye has passed away

Les Lye, best known for playing "Barth" on You Can't Do That On Television, has passed away. (I've previously written about You Can't Do That On Television.)

From CTV Ottawa:

CTV Ottawa legend Les Lye passes away

Actor and broadcaster Les Lye passed away on Tuesday at the age of 84.

Born in Toronto, Lye came to Ottawa after graduating from Lorne Greene's Academy of Radio Arts in 1948.

He joined CFRA Radio, where he served listeners for more than a decade. It was at CFRA, that he worked with Rich Little and they collaborated on a comedy album, 'My Fellow Canadians' - a spoof of the Diefenbaker years.

In 1961, he joined CJOH-TV as a freelance writer and performer. It was here, that he forged a long-lasting partnership with Bill Luxton. Together, they created the popular 'Willy & Floyd,' which ran for more than 20 years. Such personalities as Alanis Morissette, Klea Scott, Bruno Gerussi and Margaret Trudeau would drop by for surprise guest appearances.

Opportunity knocked when producers of 'You Can't Do That on Television' were looking for a versatile actor to play the many adult "foils" for the kids. Lye answered the call and instantly became a household name around the world.

Lye is survived by his wife Johnni, three children Brett, Daralyn and Emily.

A comment from that article sums him up:

You just had to look at his face to realize that you were in the presence of a true banana. His passing is a real blow to the Ottawa entertainment community.

The Golden Mean in Bread

Michael Jackson moonwalking - 1983

This is the moonwalk video. The one someone extroverted close to you imitated. The one you remember.

I watched this again tonight, and and because of some clarity and respect due to his death, or perhaps just because I hadn't seen it in years, a few things struck me:

First, look at his outfit. It synthesizes disco and traditional ballroom dance: the sparkly socks and shirt give it the glam while the loafers and hat ground it firmly in tradition. But the high cut of his trousers give him agangliness and almost awkward length of limb. After his death I heard a lot of commentators note that his dance style married the spontaneity of R&B and club culture to the grace of Fred Astaire, but let me be the first to note: Michael Jackson dressed like a nerd.

Second, as a dancer, Michael Jackson was a violent performer. His moves are stylized brutality. He kicks and punches a circle around him in the first thirty seconds as if fending off attackers. Look at his face in close-up. It's anguished. View the kick he does with his left leg at about 2:37 - its grace is martial, not balletic.

Third, the moonwalk sequence is just as amazing to me now as it was when I first saw it. He starts to prepare for it around 3:30. Watch it again. I will never get tired of it.

Street Words

I'll be writing about unprofessional advertising and vernacular discourse at Street Words from now on (which is not to imply that I'm going to stop using this blog).

Topics will include bumper stickers, chalkboard menu drawings, the cardboard signs held by homeless men on the sign of the street, small-town hair salon puns, "lost and found" flyers, and the scribbled signs of the hypergraphic or schizophrenic.

See you there.

Key Scenes and Interpretations of American Psycho

The protagonist is an antihero in the trailer.


Given certain edits, the protagonist becomes a romantic lead.


Other edits recast the film as a short commercial about soft candies.


The score has been reapplied for comedic effect.


The key scene (the one with the business cards) can be rendered as typography.


The business card scene done with dick jokes.