September 29, 2005

Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey Mouse in Black and White

Images P B00006Ii6O.01. Sclzzzzzzz This two volume set of of old black and white Mickey Mouse cartoons (34 cartoons in all) is my two-year-old daughter's favorite thing to watch. The cartoons really hold my interest, too.

The primitive characters continuously bob in rhythm to the happy old-time music, making them hypnotic. I never get tired of watching these cartoons.

It's also fun to watch Mickey smoke, drink, chew tobacco, swing cats around by their tail just to hear them yowl, and play a sow's teats like a musical instrument. What more could you ask for in wholesome family fare? Link

September 20, 2005

That's What I Call Sweet Music

Images P B00000Joau.01. Sclzzzzzzz Robert Crumb picks out 24 of his favorite dance orchestra songs from the 1920s for this fantastic audio CD, That's What I Call Sweet Music. The CD case is actually a small book, illustrated, written, and hand lettered by Crumb, with biographical information about the bandleaders featured on the disc. Writes Crumb: "What you hear on this CD is the good-time, social music of a vanished urban civilization, a lost world of smokestack factories, clanging trolley cars -- and everybody wore hats!"

The music itself is happy, peppy, melodic, and indeed sweet. The 20s were good times -- architecture, art, music, fashion, and industrial design were at their peak. The people of the era were blissfully unaware of the tragic events of the future: the Great Depression, WWII, and the appointment of George W. Bush as dictator of the United States. I often pine for that era. I know everything wasn't peachy keen -- racism was rampant, for example, but just imagine how wonderful New York City must have been! We'll never know for sure, but this CD will sweep you into a fantasy version of the world of the 1920s. Link

July 27, 2005

$1.49 Cartoon DVDs

Cheapcartoons Amazon sells DVD cartoon collections for $1.49. Each DVD has about ten cartoons on it, making it a pretty good deal. There's Betty Boop, Popeye, Little Lulu, lots of good stuff. The quality of the cartoons isn't fantabulous -- who knows where the company got them? -- but they're good enough not to be distracting. Whenever I have to take the kids on a long car or plane trip, I take these DVDs with me along with a portable DVD player. It works wonders -- like having on "off" switch on your kid. Buy from Amazon

February 12, 2005

Walt Disney Treasures Tomorrowland: Disney in Space and Beyond

Walt Disney Treasures - Tomorrowland: Disney in Space and Beyond, a 2 DVD set, is a huge treat on multiple levels. Ward Kimball's animation in the 1950s space episodes is stunning, and I have been taking screengrabs* of the cartoons to save in my swipe file. (Click thumbnails for enlargement.)

The scientific explanations of spaceflight by rocket luminaries like Werner von Braun are well presented, and they make use of little rocket models that are so neat I would consider killing someone to get my hands on them.

I highly recommend the other Walt Disney Treasure series DVDs, too. They're 2 DVD sets in metal cases and they represent the cream of Disney animation and television. Most of them have over three hours worth of material on them, and I think they're a bargain. I have Silly Symphonies, Black and White Mickey Mouse, Color Mickey, and several others. My 7-year-old and I watch them over and over again. The only one I don't really recommend is the Goofy set, because they skipped the really early black and white stuff (from the Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar era) and included a lot of the weak "no-ears" Goofy cartoons. I can't deal with a Goofy speaking in a clipped British accent. It's even worse than when Snoopy became bipedal.)

*Mac OS X doesn't let you take screen grabs when you are running the DVD Player. I'm not going to waste keystrokes comment on the idiocy of this other than to say you can screen grab to your heart's content if you play DVDs using the open source VLC media player.

UPDATE: David wrote about this DVD for BB last year! Link

UPDATE 2:". . . they make use of little rocket models that are so neat I would consider killing someone to get my hands on them."

Stefan sez: "No need for that young man!" (you can buy the model kits here and here)

"I built the 'Lunar Lander' and have started pre-painting the 'Space Taxi.' The 1940s space men listed here were the subject of an essay by William Gibson. I gave him a couple from my set at a signing."

UPDATE 3: A reader sez: "I find DVD Capture to be useful with Apple's DVD player."

Link

April 21, 2004

99-cent coupon for Blockbuster rental

Print this out and get a 99-cent rental coupon at Blockbuster. Link

March 20, 2004

Uncovered - The Whole Truth About the Iraq War

Uncovered is a documentary about the way the White House distorted the truth in an attempt sell the American public and the rest of the world on its pre-emptive war on Iraq. I already thought that Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, and the rest of that gang were being sneaky about it, but this DVD nailed it for for me. The reason Uncovered is so persuasive is that the director wisely chose to interview only "insiders" for the documentary -- CIA analysts, weapons investigators, Pentagon officials, and former White House counsels. Their comments on the administration's exagerations and spin are devastating. According to the director, even people who support the war in Iraq become angry after watching Uncovered, because it exposes the Bush administration as a pack of thoroughly corrupt liars. Buy from Amazon

March 05, 2004

Walt Disney Treasures -- Silly Symphonies

This two DVD set of 31 Disney shorts (over five hour's worth of cartoons) is a cornucopia of wonderful storytelling and animation, from Ub Iwerk's "Skeleton Dance" (a black and white clasiic in which skeletons in a graveyard play on each other like xylophones and rearrange their bones in grotesque forms) to the Academy Award winning "The Old Mill."

These cartoons are the polar opposite of The Simpsons -- if you turned the sound off on The Simpsons, you wouldn't understand what was happening. But you could turn the sound off on a Silly Symphony short and have no problem figuring out what was going on, thanks to the activity, gags, and pantomime. We've watched these cartoons dozens of times and we're still not tired of them.

Includes some interesting supplemental material, such as commentary by Leonard Maltin and Disney animation documentaries.

Buy from Amazon

March 01, 2004

Give 'Em Enough Rope by The Clash

On one of the music mailing lists I subscribe to, a British DJ reported that he's been spinning discs for people's 50th birthday parties. He writes: "They love their Punk Rock, the last one I did there was a bunch of BBC middle managers leaping around to the Pistols and the Clash. That's your Punk Rock demographic." I'm not 50 yet, but I'm definitely in the Punk Rock demogrqphic. I've been revisiting my punk rock collection, and one album that still sounds fresh is The Clash's Give 'Em Enough Rope. Following their raw and wonderful debut album, Give 'Em Enough Rope is more polished, yet more energetic than the their first. From the first drum bang of "Safe European Home," this album tells me more about the punk era than anything else, including the Sex Pistols (which were really a fake band like the Monkees, assembled by Malcom McLaren after he saw the first punk bands from New York like Richard Hell & the Voidoids and The Ramones). Give 'Em Enough Rope may not be as artistic as The Clash's follow-up album, London Calling, but to me, it's the zenith of punk.
Buy from Amazon

February 19, 2004

Frontier House

This is PBS's version of reality TV: Take four American families who are accustomed to the modern conveniences of the 21st century and plop them down in the middle of the Montana wilderness with nothing but 19th century technology, clothing, and transportation. The volunteer families even had to build their own log cabins, and use old fashioned medicine when they got sick. I was fascinated by the way the families adapted to their frontier lives (and sometimes cheated to get by) and how they started hating the other families. It was also interesting to see that the men loved the experience of making houses, farming, setting up fences, and corralling animals, while the woman couldn't wait to get back to pedicures, microwaves, and SUVs.
Buy from Amazon

February 15, 2004

Looney Tunes Golden Collection

A lot of the 56 classic Looney Tunes cartoons in this collection have been shown on television over and over again, but the versions here are uncut, offering their full complement of cartoon violence. In addition, there are a bunch of cartoons in this 4-disc set I've never seen.

But the thing that makes this package worth the price is the supplemental material. There are tons of commentaries, documentaries, interviews, featurettes, excerpts from live-action shows, art galleries, and best of all, several cartoons with "music-only" tracks, so you can appreciate conductor Carl Stalling's genius. It's no surprise Entertainment Weekly said Looney Tunes Golden Collection was the best DVD of 2003. My six-year-old daughter and I like to watch at least two cartoons from this collection every night.

I hope Warner Bros. eventually gives the same treatment to the other 1000 cartoons in their vaults, especially the work of director Tex Avery, who is conspicuously absent from this collection. Nevertheless, this is my favorite DVD purchase in years.

Buy on Amazon