He ate a purse

If you liked Garfield Minus Garfield, you might also like Lasagna Cat (link courtesy of Penny Arcade).

A summary: live action recreations of Garfield strips, deconstructed and set to music. As with most things, way funnier than the description makes it sound.

Garfield Minus Garfield

This is genius.

Garfield has got to be one of the most consistently unfunny cartoon strips in the world, ranking right up there with the colossally mundane Family Circus. However, it turns out that if you reprint Garfield comics with Garfield himself removed, they become infinitely more entertaining. The remaining comics (featuring Jon in a variety of solitary scenes) are, in the words of the creator, "about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life". Brilliant.

Here are a few of my favourite Garfield Minus Garfield strips.

El Guincho

If (like me) you're starting to get the late-winter stir craziness, and catch yourself staring longingly at your frisbee when you should be working (again, like me), here is some music that might help. El Guincho is a solo project by a guy named Pablo Diaz-Reixa, who stacks layers of oohs and aahs on top of steel drums, sunny guitars and lo-fi percussion to make a kind of foreign, tropical version of the Go! Team. It's like warmth for your ears.

As a side note, I think vocals are always better when you can't understand them. It's like, this song could be saying some really profound stuff! This guy could be the Spanish Shakespeare for all I know, when in reality it's probably like "I love to eat oranges! Oranges are tasty. Let's go eat some oranges."

El Guincho - Palmitos Park

El Guincho - Antillas

John McCain - Like Hope, But Different

A few days ago, will.i.am released a music video/speech interpretation of some of Barack Obama's (admittedly, pretty awesome) rhetoric that's been generating a lot of buzz. That's right, one of the creative musical forces behind one of the defining songs of our generation, My Humps, is now weighing in on political discourse. Here's the Obama speech/song/video/thing:



It didn't take long for someone to whip one up for John McCain, and it is awesome. Gonna be wars!

His eyes lit up... like they were on fire!

So I was going to write a post about the US election, but it probably wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining as this. It's the most insightful analysis of the race for the presidency that I have seen so far.


Mysterious Traveler Entrances Town With Utopian Vision Of The Future

Coolio's Caprese Salad

Which gangsta rapper do you think would make the best television chef? You're right, it's Coolio. This video pretty much kicks the crap out of every other cooking show I've ever seen.

Bring yo' ass to the table!



Also, if you feel like posting a video response, you could win a Coolio-autographed bell pepper, which is pretty much the best prize I can imagine winning.

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Happy Year of the Rat, everyone!

Judas Priest Shreds

Recipe for awesomeness: Take a Judas Priest performance, mute the audio and overdub the clip with terrible guitar playing and mumbling.

If that doesn't sound all that funny, check it out. I promise mirth.

Kosovo - Independent State #193?

It looks like the world is about to welcome Kosovo to the Legitimate Independent States Club (not an actual club, really). Sometime later this month, it's expected that Kosovo is going to make like a Balkan banana and split, becoming the 193rd officially recognized independent member state of the UN. Man, it'd suck to be Serbia. Two years ago, you lose Montenegro (in the middle of the World Cup, resulting in the only instance in my knowledge of a single World Cup soccer team simultaneously representing two independent states), and now Kosovo's making a break for it too.

There's worry that this kind of thing is setting a precedent for declarations of independence around the Balkans. This is kind of a bad idea for two reasons. First, not every potential state has the kind of near-unanimous support for independence and democracy that Kosovo has (90% of Kosovars are in favour), and that could mess things up. Secondly, some potential states include the likes of the Republic of Srpska, which is clearly in violation of the UN regulations on the maximum allowable number of adjacent consonants in a state name.

It's the Hawaii Chair!

Infomercials are basically the lowest form of human communication. Grunting and rhythmically beating one's chest ranks at least a few notches higher. Still, in the world of infomercials, there's bad, and then there's ridiculous.

Take, for example, the Hawaii Chair. This hallmark of human ingenuity promises to "take the work out of your workout" by allowing you to get fit while sitting down. Just because you don't want to be obese doesn't mean you need to give up your sedentary lifestyle in front of the TV!

My favourite part of the infomercial is the computer generated "science" animations, featuring cutaway models of both the human body (it says my abs will glow bright red, glowing means getting in shape!) and the 2800 RPM Hula Motor. Hula Motor? Seriously? I don't think that's a thing.