Not surprisingly the whole Anne Coulter / University of Ottawa Provost letter affair sparked a large degree of discussion here at the office. It seems from our perspective, we can all agree on two essential facts:
1) Coulter’s shtick is bombast. As our one and only (more)
A Chicago area restaurant has resurrected the vaunted 3 martini lunch as part of a prix fixe no less. The Fifty/50 (2047 W. Division St.) offers a $35 lunch deal that includes a BLT salad, a skirt-steak sandwich on garlic bread, sweet-potato pie and THREE MARTINI’S! (more)
In honour of the imminent release of The Runaways this week, and The Stooges’ recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we thought it would be prudent to have the shop weigh in on the best rock movies of all time; a lot deliver but a whole lot more under-deliver to be sure. Oh where will The Runaways land?!
We did this on St. Patrick’s Day with Guinness and Kilkenny in hand which added to the day for sure.
The YouTube rock fests that occasionally erupted as a result of this particular stream provided a welcome respite from the fiddle and tinflute.
And so, let’s kick out the proverbial jams….!
The Basics: (documentaries galore!)
This Is Spinal Tap
The Song Remains the Same
Quadrophenia – “out of my brain on the train!!!”
“Quadrophenia is my favourite. I think Tommy was overrated, although not as much as Pink Floyd’s The Wall”
“Quadrophenia is indeed fantastic… “
A Hard Days Night – “the original rock movie?”
Gimme Shelter
Purple Rain
The Last Waltz
The Doors
The Commitments
The Touchy Feely:
“If Barb were here, she’d say ‘Almost Famous’ and make everyone watch this clip Almost Famous – Tiny Dancer (aka “the touchy feely part”)
“I was going to say ‘Almost Famous’ and also show that clip. It’s just such a good scene!”
“I have a soft spot for “School of Rock”.”
“What about Hair. Another of my favourites – but I was a bit of a hippy in my 20s working for Greenpeace. ‘Let The Sunshine In’ makes me teary.”
The Bad Ass:
Sid and Nancy
“Ramones fans?” Rock ‘n’ Roll High School
“You know, we opened for The Ramones once in Ottawa. Just sayin’ .I should have that tattooed on my face”
The Great Rock and Roll Swindle
The Filth and the Fury – Sex Pistols doc;
“The filth and the fury is a great companion to Swindle – the pistols side of the story which is essentially ranting about how much of an asshole Malcolm McLaren is.”
“Yes, McLaren is so full of hubris he basically personifies it. But – creation and pop culturification of punk as personified by the Sex Pistols and turning that into moneyit’s deservedly on his CV”.
“I did an essay on punk back in high school and it was such a pleasure to include lyrics as examples that included the word fuck.”
“British punkers or West Coast American punk? Who would win in a chain fight?”
The Intellectual Examination Thereof:
Joe Srummer: The Future Is Unwritten; “a fantastic recounting of The Clash’s beginnings, rise and full-on implosion… mega cameos, too.”
“The Decline of Western Civilization Parts 1 and 2 are both interesting to watch once in a while.” “The metal one (don’t know if it’s part 1 or part 2) is really, really great. Dystopic really.”
The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2(The Germs)
“Has anyone seen “It Might Get Loud”, the Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White talking guitars?”
Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey
Slightly Under The Radar:
“Rock and Rule, circa 1983! Canadian animation at it’s best!”
Anvil: The Story of Anvil - “Toronto based!”
Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park
Phantom Of The Paradise - “DePalma weirdness. It’s actually quite creepy.”
The Fearless Freaks – Flaming lips
What We Do Is Secret – The Germs biopic
Control – Ian Curtis biopic
24 Hour Party People – Factory Records
Sort of Kind Of Rock Movies:
8 Mile
Madonna: Truth or Dare
Walk Hard – The Dewie Cox Story
And Finally….
“Whaddabout fhaken FUBAR!? So maybe it’s not really Rock n’ Roll, but still a great fhaken movie….”
Dean Murdoch: As it stands Plan B is to just keep on Given’r.
Farrel Mitchener: Giving it to her?
Dean Murdoch: No given’r
Farrel Mitchener: Can you maybe explain given’r? What exactly does that mean?
Dean Murdoch: Give’r. You just go out and you give’r. You keep on working hard.
Farrel Mitchener: Is that a plan?
Dean Murdoch: Yeah that’s a plan right there.
Urp.
PariahMike
In honour of the imminent release of The Runaways this week, and The Stooges’ recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we thought it would be prudent to have the shop weigh in on the best rock movies of all time; a lot deliver but a whole lot more under-deliver (more)
Fall back, spring forward? Maybe not… Everyone feels the dragging impact of a lost and much-needed hour of sleep. Ironically, daylight saving time is “supposed to save energy – pushing daylight later in the day means (more)
“Because we work in the industry, we often get calls from friends of friends to attend upcoming events, and help out with a variety of cool new projects. Last week we had one of these opportunities and thought it would be neat to tell (more)
There were the good times, and there were the not so good times, but (most of us) made it through, and now we have much to discuss. This is what we thought of the 82nd Academy Awards:
On Avatar:“ I couldn’t help but think that (more)
Fall 2009. Paris. The spring/summer 2010 Chanel show. Lights dim. Music starts. The first model steps out and begins her dreamy nonchalant strut though the fabulous faux Chanel barn. A quiet murmur sweeps through the hushed crowd.“… (more)
http://www.facebook.com/TropicanaCanada#!/TropicanaCanada?v=app_4949752878
Tropicana shed some light (and plenty of OJ) on the permanent darkness Canadians living up north deal with during winter months. First a Facebook group complete with photos and videos, and now their top TV spot, we checked it out and compiled our thoughts:
“It’s also unlikely that the local stores even stock Tropicana. And I don’t even want to know the eco-footprint on this little gem of an idea.”
“It’s made a lot of the industry blogs: I think you guys are bang-on re: sustainability and carbon footprint. Also: while the final execution does look cool, the whole thing somehow feels really forced to me.”
“But it’s a good ‘forced’. It simply connects with the brand and tells a nice story for the viewer. Instead of donating money or time to a cause, they delivered an interesting experience to the folks up north and, in turn, delivered an interesting experience to us.”
“Happily they’re doing this through a real event, done docu-style and it’s a fairly authentically positive feeling all around. I liked it the moment I saw it on Creativity and, you know, I’m wild for the modern ads that are grounded in core human truths.”
Summary: Thoughtful and inspiring, but with practicality an issue. They made people happy on an artistic level, but the faux sun won’t stay forever and the free juice will run out.
On a note closer to the basics:
“Getting sick of hummable little folk ditties as soundtracks though.”
As well, to gain a little more insight; some comments from the Facebook group:
“I cannot believe how unauthentic and frivolous this is. For the sake of the connection of an ad to your tagline, you disrespect the situation in which a community lives in, in northern Canada by “brightening one day” with a balloon. So the next day, the place is back in darkness (actual and metaphorical) and the Tropic…”-Maya
To the response of…
“There’s always someone to make a good deed look bad! I think it was wonderful to travel so far to brighten someone’s day, even if it was only one day!!”! -Dinah
Seems the thoughts are like night and day…
http://www.facebook.com/TropicanaCanada#!/TropicanaCanada?v=app_4949752878
Tropicana shed some light (and plenty of OJ) on the permanent darkness Canadians living up (more)
