A while back I heard a cool song on AOL Radio called Le Monster vs. Phofo by My Favorite. I went on to check out other stuff by My Favorite, and found that while they were decent, they didn’t create the sound I liked so much: Phofo did. I’ve had similar discoveries in the past: Super Bon Bon by Soul Coughing was only a hit when it was it remixed by Propellerheads; Battleflag by Pigeonhed and Lo Fidelity Alltars, whose collaboration created a whole greater than the sum of their parts.
In his remix of Le Monster, Phofo infuses a lounge/bossa nova sound and snappy drums. If you listen to his other stuff, you see it’s a common theme, along with prodigious sampling. Speaking of which, he is a practicing trial lawyer (and I thought I was a renaissance man) and has set up samplinglaw.com to help other artists with this issue.
He has many of his tracks posted as MP3s in the audio section of his site, definitely worth a listen. Notable tracks include the aforementioned Le Monster, Roger 7, and I Love Happy Funball (which was also a fantastic SNL skit: “Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.”)
Monthly Archives: January 2006
HD DVD and Double Layer DVDs
First, I’m finally seeing double layer discs available to the public, without being bundled with other media you don’t need. Not terribly cheap, Amazon has Verbatim DVD+Rs (which seems to have the fewest defects) for around $10 per 3 pack. I wonder how this will affect piracy now that you can copy normal DVDs with little to no quality (or feature) loss.
The other item I caught is the imminent arrival of HD DVDs. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is going on in Las Vegas right now (and some day when I’m rich I’ll get tickets), so product announcements are abound. You might have heard that Sony came up with Blu-Ray as a high definition DVD format, but the DVD Consortium decided HD DVD was the better format. True to form, Sony couldn’t lose graciously and decided to go ahead with it anyway, attempting to fracture the market. And true to form, they are about to have their asses handed to them, as Toshiba is coming out with their HD DVD player several months ahead of Sony. And one other thing, heck, probably not even worth mentioning, shouldn’t have much impact at all. It’s half the friggin price! Booya! Of course, Sony will probably retaliate by not putting their movies in HD DVD format, so you’ll have to wait a long time, or by a Blu-Ray player, if you want to see a high def Kirstin Dunst all wet and cold and thinly-t-shirted in Spiderman. As much as I’d like to buy an HD DVD player as soon as they’re released, I can’t help but remember that the standard DVD players didn’t have all the kinks worked out until the 3rd generation. However, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop myself once Netflix comes on board.
Movie Car Collection: Better Off Dead: 1967 Camaro
Continuing the Movie Car Collection series with another great American muscle car:
Better Off Dead: 1967 Camaro
Price range: $20,000-45,000
Better Off Dead is my favorite 80’s teen comedy. Considering the number of 80’s teen comedies, that’s pretty high praise. This car brings Lane together with cute French chick Monique (I bet he put his testicles all over her). More importantly, it flattens a Ford Falcon driven by the Asian Cosell brothers. On second thought, that’s not more important. I’d much rather have a hot French foreign exchange student than beat a Ford in a street race – I can do that with my WRX already.
Turns out, I am not the only one in love with this car, not by a long shot. There is a terrific story at betteroffdeadcamaro.com about how the owner of that site tracked down the original car (wasn’t easy!) and fully restored it to it’s former glory. Just like the movie. Wow, man.
Since the original isn’t for sale, you can settle for a diecast 1/18th scale replica. Yes, of course, it’s black.
Movie Car Collection: Animal House: 1961 Corvette
I am finally getting a chance to expand upon my earlier post about movie cars. The first car in Archangel’s Movie Car Collection is the 1961 Corvette featured in the movie Animal House
Animal House: 1961 Corvette
Price range: $35,000-65,000
The car driven by pre-med student and all around ladies man Eric “Otter” Stratton. It’s red with white cowls. Any car with cowls automatically goes up a notch in my book. Batman has a cowl – I rest my case. This car has also been memorialized in a 1/18 scale die cast model. You can view other Animal House cars at http://www.acmewebpages.com/animal/cars.htm. Granted, it would be a little cooler if it was a convertible, but either way you’ll be turning heads and sleeping with Dean Wormer’s wife in no time.