Not having grown up in Canada, I didn't see this on either CityTV or MuchMusic... in fact, although this video is burned into my brain, I have no idea where I saw it at all. The small American town I grew up in was probably a thousand miles from the nearest Dr. Demento broadcast -- all I can figure is that it may have been on Night Flight.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 11:08 PM on January 23, 2008

What on Earth does Microsoft have to do with any of it?
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 7:28 AM on January 15, 2008

What is her hangup with ironing?
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 7:58 PM on December 20, 2007

I used the "very same article" liberally.

I don't see how that phrase lends itself to a range of interpretations. Either it's the very same article, or it isn't.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 3:10 PM on December 6, 2007

Is this the thread where I can pick up some favorites for ASCII art of a guy on a motorcycle?
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 2:40 PM on November 30, 2007

The comment MegoSteve pointed to has it exactly right. The comic isn't directed at Raymond at all, except possibly to the extent she's complicit in Ubisoft's strategy to use her sex appeal to sell their game.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 10:02 PM on November 19, 2007

When "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came out, I posited that it would make a fine medley with "Louie Louie" and "More Than a Feeling". Then "Futurama" came along, and I added that to the list. A hundred years from now, we'll all be dead, but this chord progression will live on.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 9:42 PM on August 6, 2007

"Despite the concerns many in the US have expressed"? It's not like we all get to vote on this.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 11:25 AM on July 31, 2007

This was an awesome list a year and a half ago.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 9:46 PM on July 18, 2007

I want my two dollars!
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 2:32 PM on June 26, 2007

What does "of course a.o." mean?
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 9:48 PM on May 22, 2007

Seems to me the real star here is Leone's filmmaking, not some guy who gave it a new soundtrack. It's awfully nice that they asked his permission, though.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 12:39 AM on May 20, 2007

do really think that a lot of the people aren't there to ogle nuditity for the off-chance of getting laid?

And now you know exactly why you're never invited to those kinds of parties.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 10:59 AM on May 7, 2007

at 75, his children and grandchildren stand to inheirit a tidy sum

His children and grandchildren are 75 years old? Wow, he must be ancient.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 11:28 AM on May 2, 2007

Please God, make posts of Something Awful links die. Amen.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 12:35 AM on April 8, 2007

If by "accessible" you mean "funny", then yes, you're right.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 11:28 PM on April 3, 2007

Another touching human interest story from the NY Times which has had a bunch of these recently.

I think that little paper is really going to make a name for itself someday.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 1:30 AM on March 18, 2007

Please call Stella.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 5:06 PM on January 19, 2007

So this iPhone... it vibrates?

No, seriously. I really want to know.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 7:24 PM on January 9, 2007

What does "popcorn post" mean? A little Googling reveals that the only person here who uses that phrase is, well, you.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 7:16 AM on January 4, 2007

you absolutely have to watch La Jetee in the french - it's just not right to lose the original voice

But I don't speak French! Is there a subtitled version?

In other news, I've recently discovered a children's book that bears an eerie similarity to that Judy Garland movie with the yellow brick road. Also, those Peter Jackson movies seem to be a lot like the writing of this British professor. Seriously, you guys should check it... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 12:33 PM on December 24, 2006

Artw, I'm pretty sure you meant to link to this.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 8:48 PM on December 20, 2006

If there is any justice, we will live to see these recognized as works of true artistic genius.

Indeed, provided anybody recalls who made them.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 12:25 AM on December 11, 2006

The New Yorker is a weekly magazine.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 12:07 AM on December 3, 2006

furtive: For reasons utterly unrelated to this post, the "awesomely wielding lightsabers" link is the one not to miss.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 8:31 AM on December 1, 2006

Except Colbert didn't really initialize the Green Screen Challenge. The Internets did. Fans started modifying the footage themselves before Colbert officially announced the GSC.

Seems like that would be hard to do without the green-screen footage to work with.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 10:19 AM on December 1, 2006

I wonder how much effort is involved in cleaning up after one of them. In other words, how much poo would a pudu do, if a pudu could do poo?
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 11:06 AM on November 29, 2006

As also seen in Slate.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 5:56 PM on November 22, 2006

That's what you get for not reading past the first line. The rest of the piece makes it quite clear that Odeo will continue to exist.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 12:49 AM on November 4, 2006

...completely automatically
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 9:17 PM on October 24, 2006

a town where barristas are Ivy Leaguers and carpenters have law degrees and MBAs

Spoken like someone who actually lives here. Oh wait... never mind.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 10:48 PM on October 4, 2006

From the Flagpole link: "...when people say that Murmur is the band's best album, we just shake our heads in confusion and crank up Out of Time."

OMFG.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 2:28 PM on September 15, 2006

Here's the NYTimes op-ed piece.

(I Googled a phrase likely to turn up the article at its original URL, then plugged that URL into the New York Times link generator.)
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 12:43 PM on September 12, 2006

What are you guys talking about? I don't see a reference to Ben Day anywhere on the linked pages.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 2:01 PM on August 23, 2006

Oh wait, it's in the panels themselves. Never mind.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 2:05 PM on August 23, 2006

May 17, 1991 was the first day you could connect to a Web server with a Web browser, and is generally considered the date when the Web was "switched on".
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 9:06 AM on August 6, 2006

Well, if Wikipedia says so, it must be true!
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 12:20 PM on August 6, 2006

I like the part where a Slashdot posting pointing to an IMDb entry is automatically fact, despite this "report" appearing absolutely nowhere else.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 1:35 PM on August 3, 2006

One of these years, I'm going to be able to get through an August 1 without someone bringing up the Buggles.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 11:47 AM on August 1, 2006

The trailer though, they couldn't hire a real voice actor? The synth voice was irritating from a stylisitic standpoint.

I'm pretty sure that is a real voice actor. Synth voices don't sound like that.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 7:38 AM on July 20, 2006

Portal was set in the Half-Life 2 continuity, had a narrative element to it and was relevant to the HL2 storyline in some way

I haven't read anything to indicate that Portal has a narrative element or is relevant to the storyline. Everything I've seen just characterizes the game as a first-person puzzle game. That GameSpy piece is the only one even to mention HL, and even so "set in the Half-Life universe" is not the same thing at all as... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 7:53 AM on July 20, 2006

It's pretty clearly individual phonemes strung together, intentionally a bit sloppily.

Listen closer. The cadences are not at all like what you'd get from a synth, and chopping up synth output to get these cadences is way, way more trouble than simply hiring an actor and processing the result to sound artificial. Especially for a demo movie that isn't even the actual product.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 11:46 AM on July 20, 2006

That argument would be slightly plausible (though still a stretch) if Valve had a history of embedding these sorts of hidden messages in their work, but they don't do that sort of thing, and this would be a weird way to start.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 11:23 AM on July 21, 2006

NewYorkerFromLikeFourIssuesAgoFilter, now?

Right, because surely everyone here has a subscription to The New Yorker. What are we, a bunch of philistines? And surely everyone keeps so up to date that they've already read every article in every issue by the time the next issue arrives.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 9:01 PM on June 13, 2006

Flagged. Hope you got your five bucks worth.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 10:12 PM on May 10, 2006

Because, you know, when you're pressing a button, what you need is leverage.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 9:26 PM on May 10, 2006

The Webvan of 2006?
I WANT MY SINGLE CANDY BAR DELIVERED AT 3 AM THX

That was Kozmo, not Webvan. Get it straight. Webvan was a good idea badly executed; Kozmo was a bad idea.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 5:25 PM on April 29, 2006

I clicked this link thinking, "It can't possibly be as good as those two kids dueling in a warehouse I saw a couple of years ago." And lo and behold, it was exactly as good.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 5:12 PM on April 26, 2006

Arial? Seriously?
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 9:39 AM on April 21, 2006

While I am a monster Lost fan, it must be acknowledged that he is also the creative force behind Felcity and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

1. Abrams had nothing to do with Buffy. You may be thinking of Alias, which Abrams did create.

2. Buffy was a way better show than any of those Abrams has produced.
posted to MetaFilter by jjg at 8:26 AM on April 21, 2006