Have you resigned yourself to the fact that you’re the worst dancer in the world? So many people say that, but they don’t know what they’re talking about, because the worst dancer is really me. They say you should dance like no one is watching, but sure as shootin’, you can feel their judgmental eyes upon you. This is the latest from John McNamee at Pie Comic.
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
A cockatiel named Patrick Jane shows off his lip-synching skills to the song “Dilemma” by Nelly and Kelly (Rowland).
Okay, okay, it’s a clever edit. Or, not so much editing as adjusting the speed of the video to synchronize with the song, but it’s funny and well done all the same. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
The auction website eBay launched on September 3, 1995. It’s hard the believe the auction site has been around that long, but there was a time I bought used Disney movies on VHS through the site, so it must be so. Some auctions fetch more attention than others. Do you recall these?
A suit of armor for a guinea pig fetched $1,150 in 2013. The creator promised that the tiny hand-made suit (and matching helmet) would keep a “guinea pig protected and secure in all situations.”
Former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s tie, which he wore when he confessed to smoking crack at a 2013 news conference, sold for $1,445 in 2015. The so-called “crack tie” featured logos of several NFL teams.
Those items are part of a list of The 20 Weirdest Things Ever Sold on eBay. You'll be scratching your head at some of the other things that have been auctioned off over eBay’s first twenty years.
(Image credit: Steven Arnold)
Sightings of a lone sheep in Australia were reported to the RSPCA, and a crew from the agency captured it Tuesday. Chris, as they named him, is a Merino sheep that had gone unshorn for at least five years. A team of five volunteer sheep shearers, including national champion Ian Elkins, worked for 40 minutes to remove 89 pounds of wool! See if you can find Chris among all that the wool in this picture.
Now Chris is 89 pounds lighter and has a world record for the most wool removed from a sheep in one shearing. Buzzfeed has the complete story with plenty of pictures.
(Images credit: RSPCA)
For the past few years, we’ve have 50th anniversaries for an awful lot of things: assassinations, protests, movies, TV shows, concerts, toys, art, songs, comics, sports, and more. Each one makes me feel older (as if I wouldn’t feel older each day anyway). Yeah, the ‘60s were an eventful decade. To save you some surprises in the future, Collectors Weekly has put together a list of all the 50th anniversary celebrations you may see in the next four years. You very well may see them right here!
You are here …and here. This is, apparently, the directions to Schrödinger’s elevators in the Möbius building. Or maybe you are there to meet yourself traveling back from the future, in which case you should run -or take an elevator- to avoid a paradox. Which one? Who knows! With just a few “corrections,” this map went from metaphysical to philosophical to fantastical to portal. -via reddit
Got a beef with the government? Maybe some other people do, too. What can you do? Start a political party! It’s been done so many times, and some of the parties that popped up throughout history are pretty strange. But then again, the parties we are used to probably seemed odd when they first began. Learn about 28 of the strangest in this week’s episode of the mental_floss List Show.
In this Sesame Street parody of Clash of the Titans, Cookie Monster is Fursius, and must pass Moo-dusa to reach Mt. Olympus Diner. To quote Cookie, “Oh, dat weird.”
And for Sesame Street’s original audience, there’s a lesson in observation and focus. And an appropriate punch line at the end. -via Geeks Are Sexy
When you think of live-action superhero TV shows, you think of Superman from the ’50s, Batman from the ‘60s, Wonder Woman from the ’70s, and, um, you might be surprised at how many superhero shows you watched and don’t think about anymore.
The good news is that we are experiencing a Renaissance of superhero shows, and there’s more to come. Enjoy this video from Vulture's Secret History of Television series. -via Laughing Squid
I well remember watching the 1973 movie Walking Tall at the theater. I don’t recall the sequels, but years later I had some professional dealings with Buford Pusser’s daughter in west Tennessee. The late sheriff had a thoroughly interesting story, which was made into a movie that was more or less accurate story of his life, but when it was a hit, the producers were compelled to make a sequel. And that meant the “true story” has to extend past reality, because the reality was, um, complicated. Joe Don Baker didn’t want to star in a sequel, so they hired Buford Pusser to portray himself.
Well, a few hours after signing the contract, Pusser went to the local county fair and apparently had a few to celebrate his forthcoming movie stardom. On his way home in his supercharged sports car, he slammed into a median, flying through the windshield before the car burst into flames. He was declared dead at the scene. Despite the reported blood alcohol level (twice the legal limit), to this day more than a few still insist the accident was the result of sabotage.
Pusser's death was incorporated into the second movie, which was also a hit, so somehow they came up with a third movie, which was even weirder. Read the strange and complex saga of the Walking Tall trilogy at Den of Geek.
It was the battle of the “meatball” and the “worm.” Or, not so much a battle, but a resistance against modernization. NASA had been using the logo that came to be known as the “meatball” for years when the Federal Graphics Improvement Program tried to modernize many of the old, ugly logos that various government agencies used, starting in 1972. Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn unveiled their design for NASA in 1974. It was a sleek, minimalist, modern design eventually called the “worm.” It came with a 90-page manual for its use. The public loved it, but the engineers at NASA didn’t think much of it. They were busy exploring space, and really didn’t understand graphic design. There was an exchange recalled later that occurred between NASA administrator James Fletcher and his deputy George Low:
Fletcher: I’m simply not comfortable with those letters, something is missing.
Low: Well yes, the cross stroke is gone from the letter A.
Fletcher: Yes, and that bothers me.
Low: Why?
Fletcher, after a long pause: I just don’t feel we are getting our money’s worth!
But NASA used the new logo until 1992, when they suddenly scrapped the worm and reinstated the meatball.
Read the story of the worm and why NASA now uses the retro 1950s-era meatball at Wired. -via Metafilter
Watch this bale of hay high-tail it across a field. I didn’t know they could go that fast!
Okay, it’s a vehicle. Not something from a movie, even though you've seen this kind of thing in comedies. This is a Japanese military …something or other. A Ghillipillar? You’d think a huge hay bale would be conspicuous just by moving, but from a distance, it probably blends into the background. -via Digg
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
The movie career of Elvis Presley was a Greek tragedy, much like Elvis' life itself. In 1956, the red-hot, eager, fresh-faced, 21-one-year-old came to Hollywood, signed a contract, and proceeded, over the course of the next decade and a half, to star in 31 films (plus two full-length documentaries).
After showing great potential in his first four movies (all of which are actually enjoyable to varying degrees), Elvis was drafted into the Army. His movie career after his military hitch, much like his musical career (not to mention Elvis himself), was never to be the same.
The resume of what any movie fan or serious critic now knows as "the Elvis Presley film" quickly sank into around two dozen or so mediocre grade-B movies where Elvis would routinely be cast as a semi-anti-hero who routinely got into some fights, sang a half-dozen songs, courted and eventually got the girl and succeeded in his chosen endeavor- against all odds.
As sad as Elvis’ career in films was, perhaps an even sadder facet of Elvis' career is his unrealized film projects, each one of which Elvis could fairly easily have gotten, but some factor (most usually Elvis' very greedy manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who relished the millions of dollars Elvis' lousy movies always reaped and the lucrative contracts he watched Elvis sign for more of the same.)
By the cruelest of ironies (at least to Elvis) no matter how terrible his progressively worsening films got, each one inevitably made a healthy profit at the box office. While Elvis and the Colonel were both paid very generously for Elvis to star in his crummy films, only Elvis did the suffering, singing to bikini-clad bevys of girls, reciting inane dialogue, and being reduced, by the mid-60's, to dancing "the clam" on a beach movie set. The Colonel happily raked in the dough, while Elvis had to watch his dreams of becoming "the next James Dean" go down the toilet, along with his reputation as "the King of Rock 'n' Roll.”
The following are a few of the potential films Elvis could have either starred in or been a part of (as one last sad irony, a great majority of the films on the below list are vastly superior to any Elvis actually appeared in):
The Girl Can't Help It (1956) Elvis was offered the chance to perform a musical number in this semi-classic, albeit very campy, Jayne Mansfield comedy. But the colonel didn't like Elvis sharing the spotlight with several other singers.
If you’ve never heard of Madam C.J. Walker, you’ve missed a story of one of the titans of industry. The former Sarah Breedlove was born in 1867 and rose from the plantations of Louisiana and built her own hair care business, with products designed for black women, through sheer hard work and tenacity.
At a time when black citizens were kept in poverty through violent intimidation and segregation, Walker’s success was built on the strength of social networks, word-of-mouth testimonials, and products designed for an acutely underserved population. In many ways, Madam Walker’s story is a classic rags-to-riches tale, wherein a poor orphaned girl pulls herself up through sheer determination and willpower, forming a business that becomes an industry giant and the envy of others. But Walker’s story is also one of repeated frustration—that her various husbands took more from her than they gave in return; that her accomplishments were challenged or overlooked by others in the black community; that she barely lived long enough to enjoy her hard-earned prosperity.
Walker’s great-great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles, wrote her biography, On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker. She talked to Collectors Weekly about Madam Walker and her unusual rise to wealth and fame.
(Image credit: ©Madam Walker Family Archives/A’Lelia Bundles)
Loki is a malamute/husky/arctic wolf mix (a “low content wolfdog”), so he is naturally at home in the snow. Enjoy watching him frolic joyfully across the mountains of Colorado. It might just cool you off on a hot day!
You can see many beautiful pictures of Loki at his Instagram page. The song is "First" by Cold War Kids. -via Tastefully Offensive
Email This Post to a Friend