Spike Jonze isn’t a stranger to a short video. He made his name directing iconic music videos for acts like The Beastie Boys, Björk, Weezer, among others. While feature films likes Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., and Her elevated him into one of today’s foremost directors, Jonze returns to the music video format every so often.
While his latest video officially bills itself as a commercial for Kenzo’s latest perfume, Kenzo World, it doubles as a music video for Sam Spiegel & Brain Child’s “Mutant Brain” record, which features Assassin. The clip features 21-year-old actress and former dancer/model Margaret Qualley, who stars in HBO’s The Leftovers and had roles in Palo Alto and The Nice Guys.
Photo screenshot via KENZO on Youtube
Beginning at an awards show of some kind, the camera zooms tighter and tighter on Qualley’s visibly flustered and upset face. She does her best to feign interest and excitement, but excuses herself for a breather.
Then the fun starts. A clocking wood block beat sounds and possesses Qualley. She loses control, her face contorting all sorts of unnatural, wacky positions, then her body joins the fun. The camera follows Qualley as she dances and flails around the fancy hotel, eventually culminating in her shooting lasers from her fingertips and leaping through a giant eye-shaped hedge. It’s absolute bonkers fun.
Ryan Hueffington choreographed “My Mutant Brain.” His previous work includes Sia’s “Chandelier” video, and the similarities are apparent. Also of note: Same Spiegel, who produced the track, is Jonze’s brother.
John and Yoko were living in New York’s Greenwich Village for nearly a year, surrounded by the politics, protests and art coming out of the Vietnam War. The FBI was investigating Lennon, trying to figure out ways to deport him before he humiliated Nixon’s presidency any further. Mark David Chapman, who assassinated Lennon in NYC in 1980, was denied parole for the ninth time yesterday.
But before all of this, they recorded the protest album Sometime In New York City and performed a raw, underrehearsed, emotional set from this album for the “One to One” concert at Madison Square Garden. It was so rough that Lennon joked onstage, “Welcome to the rehearsal.” The concert benefitted the Willowbrook Home, a facility for learning disabled children, and also featured Stevie Wonder, Sha Na Na, and Roberta Flack, according to Concert Vault.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSke-7iUCXU
Lennon bought $59,000 of tickets to this festival and gave them away to fundraising volunteers. ABC bought the broadcast rights for $350,000, and the festival sold out, generating more than $1.5 million for Willowbrook. Tickets cost $5, $7.50 and $10. If One to One happened today, not even the ticketing service fees would be that cheap.
Celebrity never dies. Or at least it’s a self-sustaining life force. One of those two statements is true, especially when considering the new cast of ABC’s hit show Dancing With The Stars.
The show debuted its new cast on a Good Morning America segment, and the dancing stars all seemed excited. The biggest names that immediately pop out include USA Swimmer/Rio Bad Boy Ryan Lochte, former Texas governor Rick Perry, and model/thirst trap Amber Rose. As Kanye might say, “I see you, Amber.”
But perhaps all the names don’t ring a bell. That’s okay. We’re here to provide a short explanation of who or where each of these celebrities came from. Here are all the pairs competing for the Mirror Ball Trophy this time around:
USA Olympic Swimmer Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke: Joining DWTS is a pretty blatant media redemption move for Lochte, who you almost certainly know after the international incident he started at the Rio Olympics this summer. Pro tip to ABC producers: Don’t leave him alone in the bathroom.
USA Olympic Gymnast Laurie Hernandez and Valentin Chmerkovskiy: Hernandez was part of the women’s All-Around team that won gold in Rio. She also earned an individual silver in women’s beam.
Former child star Jake T. Austin and Jenna Johnson: Disney channel fans will recognize Austin as Max Russo from the Wizards of Waverly Place, but Austin also voiced Diego from Dora the Explorer, a fact I certainly looked up and didn’t know already…
Little Women: LA reality star Terra Jole and Sasha Farber: Jole both stars in and executive produces the Lifetime reality show that documents the world of little people.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Emma Slater: You likely remember Perry from his two presidential bids for the White House. Then again, maybe you don’t: Perry dropped out of the race early both times.
Reality star Amber Rose and Maksim Chmerkovskiy: Here are the official titles the ABC press release bequeathed Amber Rose: proud mother, activist, entrepreneur, spokesperson, talk show host, model, actor and published author. Take that at its face value. Anyone who’s listened to Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy might know her a bit differently, though.
Former pro football player Calvin Johnson and Lindsay Arnold: Calvin Johnson retired from football startlingly early in his career, so that he may live a long and healthy life. A commendable reason. But who knew the life “Megatron” wanted to lead included Dancing with the Stars?
Former rapper Vanilla Ice and Witney Carson: If this team doesn’t dance at least three times to “Ice Ice Baby” then why even participate?
Music genius Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds and Allison Holker: Baby introduced the musical stylings of TLC, OutKast, Usher, Toni Braxton, and himself into the world. This man can do whatever he wants.
Actress Marilu Henner and Derek Hough: Henner is best known for her starring role as Elaine in the late 70s sitcom Taxi.
Former child star Maureen McCormick and Artem Chigvintsev: Can Marcia Brady dance? McCormick also had a successful film career and wrote a memoir, but playing the eldest Brady daughter is what we all know her for.
Race car driver James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess: Hinchcliffe is a pretty popular Indy car driver, but that he’s dancing following a gruesome practice crush at 2015 Indianapolis 500 is pretty astounding.
Country singer Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko: Kramer has had a successful country music career, but is also well-known for her role as Alex Dupre in CW’s One Tree Hill.
Somewhere in the woods surrounding an apartment complex in Greenville, S.C., lurks a group of clowns who have tried to lure children to join them, according to residents of a local apartment complex.
“There have been several conversations and a lot of complaints to the office regarding a clown or a person dressed in clown clothing talking to children or trying to lure children into the woods,” states a letter written last week by the property management company that owns the Fleetwood Manor apartments in Greenville. “At no times should a child be alone at night, or walking in the roads or wooded area at night.”
Donna Arnold, who lives in Fleetwood Manor and received the letter, spoke to WGHP about the clown news.
“I thought my child was seeing things,” she said. “And then the next day I had about 30 kids come up to me and say, ‘Did you see the clown in the woods?”
BuzzFeed News obtained a police report filed by a woman living in the complex, who said her son claims he had “seen clowns in the woods whispering and making strange noises.” Later, the woman said she went to investigate and “observed several clowns in the woods flashing green laser lights [who] then ran away into the woods.”
The report also quoted a woman who said she “saw a clown with a blinking nose, standing under a post light near the garbage dumpster area. She stated the suspect waved at her and she waved back while she made her way to her residence safely. The suspect did not approach her or harm her.”
The report mentions that many children from the apartment complex “believe the clowns stay in a house located near a pond at the end of a man-made [trail] in the woods.”
Donna Arnold’s husband, James, told BuzzFeed that the rash of clowns haunting their neighborhood is by far the most frightening thing residents have experienced. “This is one of the neighborhoods where guys are walking around carrying guns,” he said. “But we’ve had no clowns before.”
As of Friday evening, four Greenville County Sheriff’s Deputies were patrolling the area for clowns.
Not everyone has a voice they can call their own. Most voices come from somewhere; they’re derivative. Possibly you picked up the way your mother’s voice reaches into that higher register when she’s excited, or you liked the way an uncle called his friends “lads,” so you instituted that word into your speech. But, Gene Wilder gave voice to a world of pure imagination, and the world is better for it.
My father calls himself “The Waco Kid.” For the longest time, I assumed his reasoning followed simple logic: He was born there. As a military brat, my dad’s family moved around a bunch, living a time in such extremes as Arizona and Germany, so I thought his “Waco Kid” nickname helped situate what must have been a constantly shifting sense of place. Perhaps this is part of the truth, but I was a kid then and kids dream their own backstories to unexplained narratives.
I’m sure you see where this is going. One evening Dad was out on the back porch and Blazing Saddles played on Turner Classic Movies. Though it was late, we ended up watching the whole movie together. When Gene Wilder appeared onscreen, I’d only ever known him as Willy Wonka, but that’s when I learned where part of my dad’s voice came from: “The Waco Kid.”
Gene Wilder could never be considered derivative, at least not in his film roles. His was a voice all his own. You’ve likely heard the tragic news that Gene Wilder has passed away at the age of 83 Monday, losing a three-year long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. This afternoon, his nephew released a statement that explained why Wilder chose to hide his sickness that made its way online. In short, he didn’t want kids who knew him only as “Willy Wonka” to approach him and have that moment be ruined by parents having to later explain his illness. “He simply couldn’t bear the idea of one less smile in the world,” Jordan Walker-Pearlman wrote.
That kind of sentiment breaks your heart. Those pieces pulped just further reading that Wilder’s son had signed the note as “Gene’s Kid.”
Gene Wilder took his last breath, holding his family's hands, listening to Ella Fitzgerald sing "Over the Rainbow" pic.twitter.com/9WuCxYl62p
When we eulogize any person, we’re verbalizing regrets over lost time, a life no more. With those special artists, our mourning concerns lost creations. So-and-so will never write another novel, no more paintings from that genius. Most will lament the disappearance of Gene Wilder from the screen. Though he retreated long ago—his last film was 1991’s Another You, co-starring with longtime collaborator and friend Richard Pryor; his final onscreen TV performance was in 2003 playing Mr. Stein in Will & Grace—a hope remained some role would entice him out of retirement.
“I don’t like show business, I realized,” he said in a 2008 TCM appearance. “I like show, but I don’t like the business.”
What I’ll miss most is his voice. I simply can’t bear the idea Gene Wilder’s voice won’t be heard anymore. A warmth hugged his words, how that first syllable quickly crescendoed into existence and the last receded the same way. It played various instruments: He could thunder “YOU GET NOTHING” like an incensed trombone choir, and convince you of that bassoon quack “Fronkensteen.” The guy could literally sing.
His characters always seemed in possession of some winking secret they couldn’t wait to spill. But you had to earn it, you had to ask, you had to go along for his ride. There’s a great story about his portrayal of Willy Wonka. When Wonka, his legend enormous by then, makes his grand entrance, he walks with a cane and a limp. The crowd quiets, all wanting to gain a better look of the man. Had he become a cripple in his old age? Then his cane sticks in the cobblestone and Wonka starts to fall over, but gracefully turns the move into a somersault, popping up smiling, to a round of applause.
It was Wilder’s idea and his one requirement in accepting the film. When pressed to explain why he said, “Because from that time on, no one will know if I’m lying or telling the truth.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz9jc5blzRM
He was such a physical savant in that way. So few comedies deal in that physical realm nowadays, but that discussion is for another time.
Instead, let’s now remember that winking face and his orchestral voice, and how Gene Wilder invented worlds unto himself. Reflecting on his career, you want to know where he came from. Whatever wonderful universe that is, that’s where he’ll hopefully return. But those questions of origin will fade once you see him onscreen again, because Wilder convinced you to join him on whatever adventure his characters were embarking. You always followed. Because more than anything, you wanted to be wherever he was going. It was a world of pure imagination.
A popular household hack involves using Coke instead of traditional cleaner to scrub your toilet bowl. A kid named Chase wanted to find out if Coke has the same effect on another type of head: yours. Specifically, your teeth. When it comes to Mountain Dew and Coca Cola, which is worse for oral health?
In this experiment, Chase drops two of his sister’s molars (we assume they were previously extracted) into a bottle of the respective colas, where they were left to marinate for three weeks. What happens next will probably not surprise you.
By now, most of the world has learned that Gene Wilder has died, joining his beloved Gilder Radner as co-stars on the forever stage in the sky. The 83-year old died of Alzheimer’s Disease, which he was diagnosed with three years ago. While he kept his disease private, his legendary movies will be publicly celebrated for years to come. A comedic genius, he has made amazing moved. Here are Gene Wilder’s best food moments in film, where he managed to make the act of eating as entertaining as only he could.
Willy Wonka was a big success when in launched despite positive review. But time has been good to the film. Website Rotten Tomatoes, gives the film a 92% approval rating and an average rating of 8/10 based on 61 reviews. The site’s critical consensus states: “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is strange yet comforting, full of narrative detours that don’t always work but express the film’s uniqueness.”
Young Frankenstein, 1974
Stir Crazy, 1980
Alice in Wonderland, 1999
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDxq3GR9leY
He was mainly known for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). He collaborated with Mel Brooks on the films The Producers (1967), Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974), and with Richard Pryor in the films Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You (1991).
Recently I stumbled upon the Pumpkin Spice Latte Twitter account. It began in 2014, around the same time as the culture’s obsession of the pumpkin spice brand. Coincidence? I think not.
You must understand. The Pumpkin Spice Latte isn’t a drink. It’s a character. It’s a friend. It’s an American Institution, one of the pillars of our modern world. Without its annual return, our purview would fall into drabs of gray and doom, instead of these glorious shades of…orange.
Normally, I wouldn’t be so down with a brand like this. I mean, it’s against my brand. But like just look at these cute photos of a costumed PSL. The commitment is staggering and therefore impressive.
If you’re willing to dress up a glorified latte into lederhosen and design a fake leather jacket for it to wear, I’ll open my cold writer heart to said glorified latte. Who isn’t susceptible to this flavor of kitschy, pure delight? Everything doesn’t need to be serious.
Is the pumpkin spice thing a trend? Sure! But Starbucks is riding that wave as long as possible, and making it fun while doing so. Send this character interview with the PSL Starbucks posted to your mother. It will be her favorite thing. She will mention it to friends and family at Thanksgiving and ask you to find it so everyone else can read it, too. And they’ll all giggle and it’ll become their favorite thing. So let that light shine.
I’m only positive of fall’s return because of the PSL (and its Twitter account). Forget returning to school, forget the Big Harvest, forget the autumnal equinox. This is how we measure the changing of seasons in today’s age. Welcome to the pumpkin spice-flavored revolution.
Walking through my comic shop Wednesday evening, I was in the mood for something new. Something I’d never read or had any particular interest in before. That’s when I saw the cover for the first issue of Lady Killer 2 #1. This cover is oddly charming, but in the most demented way, and when you open it, you’ll find that the book itself gives you the exact same feeling.
Set in the late 50s, maybe early 60s, the book opens up at a Tupperware party hosted by some well-off elderly sisters. The protagonist, Josie Schuller, is displaying the pieces of Tupperware, while the ladies gossip. The art style looks like 1950s housewife advertising, until the guests leave and Josie brutally murders the elderly sisters. One while she was sitting on the toilet. Then, like any other good “Stepford wife,” she meticulously cleans the crime scene.
Cover image via Dark Horse Comics, Inc.
The story plays out like a slasher film and a dark comedy. You know what’s going to happen next, but at the same time love to watch it unfold. The book is aware of itself, but in the best possible way. Joelle Jones and Jamie S. Rich have created a strong female character, in a setting where you might not expect to see one.
If you’re a fan of TV’s Mad Men, but thought, “There’s just not enough violence and murder in this show,” then this book is right up your alley. Joelle Jones’s artwork is stunning. The violence and gore is highlighted by the contrast of brightly colored 1950’s clothing and furniture. After an ordinary, humdrum workday, finding this delightfully brutal book made for a satisfying evening.
Everyone’s favorite big brother, the guy who feeds you ice cream and Whopperitos when mom and dad aren’t home, is at the center of a little mall drama in Florida. Joey “I’m not in a band anymore” Fatone, also known as the only NSYNC member who could pull off facial hair, launched a hot dog kiosk brilliantly named Fat One’s at The Florida Mall recently. And during a standard fire inspection on Thursday afternoon, several balloons were popped, scaring shoppers into thinking they were targets of a wayward gunman.
Even though an announcement was made on the PA system alerting everyone to the impending inspection, people still freaked out. (An alarm that sounded immediately after the popping sure didn’t help). And remember, it was a little more than two months ago that the Orlando nightclub massacre happened.
Shopper Mark Comer tells WFTV: “People were bumping into things, getting stepped on, falling, children getting dragged by their arms.”
