On Web Culture

Via Dubber.

Let’s just say all you need is this link. Pure. Gold.

Via Caoine.

There is a high-quality version courtesy of video.google.com if you follow the link, look for “watch in high quality”, I couldn’t find a way to link to that directly.

Source: YouTube

Bonus:
Jermaine Clement’s lips

UPDATE (29/11/2007): Alas, they stopped hosting the embedded video I was linking to. However, if you can still check out Flight of the Conchords – Video.
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According to the NZ Herald, HBO has gone ahead with a second season of the Flight of the Conchords show indicating the first season must have gone down well with American audiences. Salon.com said:

Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are both hysterical, and while the brilliance of the musical numbers has waned a little since the heady thrills of that first Prince-inspired melody (“Lookin’ ’round the room, I can tell that you are the most beautiful girl in the room — in the whole wide room!”), I loved the ridiculous David Bowie sequence a few weeks ago, in which Bowie appears to Bret and tells him that an eye patch will enhance his look, all the while singing songs that span his evolving musical style, one minute sounding a little bit like “Changes,” the next evoking “Diamond Dogs.”

LINKS
Read a Salon.com interview with Flight of the Conchords
Listen to the Salon.com interview with Flight of the Conchords (.mp3) (I found this more interesting as the podcast includes a bunch of questions that didn’t make the writeup)

Auckland International Film Festival
Who made this website? And why does it suck? This happens every year and I don’t understand why. This is not good design, it frustrates my attempts to click on different links and open them in new tabs. Why is only the text and not the whole block clickable? After I opened 15 new tabs of films I was interested in seeing, Firefox 2.0 crashed and then caused my computer to hemorrhage trying to restore the previous session. Website crashes Firefox? Tick!

If you’re going to some festival films drop me a line with what ones you’re seeing.

We are meant to be here
Such a notion often requires an absence of pride. We as a people are not good at doing this. I am human, I know it all.

The Lamest Wikipedia Edit Wars
You might have passed over the Lamest Wikipedia Edit Wars the first time. I encourage you to give it another go. Watch as we strive for excellence. Watch as the validty of Spyro The Dragon’s inclusion in the Crash Bandicoot article is debated in detail:

* Calm down, kid. As I’ve explained numerous times, those situations are not the same. And if they were, I’d argue for them to be changed too. As for the Pirahna Plants, why do they link to a Mario page? Because they’re Mario in origin. Just like Spyro is, well, Spyro in origin. Doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be noted on the template. He features in a number of Crash games, therefore he’s part of the Crash “universe”, therefore he should be in the template. It’s that simple.

* And, as WE’VE (all three of us) have explained to you (or tried to), the situations ARE the same, you’re just insisting that they aren’t the same so your opinion can, once again, be portrayed as fact. And the plants in Crash are NOT Mario in origin, they’re a totally different plant. Spyro IS Spyro in original, so he is NOT a Crash character. Yes, we KNOW he’s been IN several Crash games, but that does NOT make him a Crash character. He is STILL a Spyro character. Will you give it up already?

* All three of you? The only person to comment here (other then you, myself and Klaus Kratchet) agreed with me. As I’ve said, those situations are not the same, with the possible exception of Nights and Sonic, and if that’s the case, I think that should be changed too. What’s your point?If the Pirahana Plants are not taken from Mario, why does the link go to a Mario page? Obviously they’re considered to be a ‘cameo” or a reference to Mario, or whatever. The point is, they appear in several games, like Spyro, they’re recognised as coming from another series, like Spyro, and they should be in the template, like Spyro.

* Further proof that you ae incapable of reading. We’ve repeated this information numerous times…they are NOT the same flipping plant! Sheesh! You’re a rock, you know that? It’s impossile to get blood out of you. (more)

The New York Times:
“Flight of the Conchords is funny in such an understated way that it is almost dangerous to make too much of it. It’s much slighter than HBO’s big production comedies like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. It’s also a little sweeter, less a satire of show business than wry self-parody.”

New York Post:
“A fantastic flight. Something new and hilarious, and completely different. Unlike anything else I have ever seen before.”

Variety.com:
“Hardly a great show…It’s all pretty standard stuff, shot on a dime against grungy New York backdrops…the show isn’t much to look at, but thanks to those music videos, there are moments when it sounds like a gem.”

Chicago Tribune:
“The charms of this series are subtle, but only grow over the course of the first few episodes. Clement and McKenzie, perhaps because of their upbringing in the most polite nation on Earth, are well suited to understated, self-deprecating comedy, and their fertile imaginations are usually up to the task entertaining the short attention span of the YouTube generation.”

Source: NZ Herald

Cheers to Sheldon for the link.

Source: Dead-Frog

It’s hard to pick how the humour will go down with American audiences. What do others think?

CONCHORDS ROUNDUP:

• Bret McKenzie is also in the band The Black Seeds. Their latest album is Into The Dojo
• Jemaine Clement is starring in the film Eagle vs Shark (QuickTime required)
• Bret is also part of The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra [alto.net.nz]

Mitch Hedburg
Source: YouTube

Demetri Martin
Source: YouTube

Best Valentines Day story:

“Mellons Bay Primary, 1992, Mrs Gavin’s Standard 2 class – a hotbed of tender emotions where hearts were broken daily and girl germs were rife. Mike Smith* was a shy and innocent blond-haired boy. He was not in my direct circle of schoolyard chums, primarily because he didn’t do My Little Ponies at playlunch, but I knew that he must have been pretty cool because he regularly sat up the highest on the classroom mat. However, it was not until he let me use the hallowed mint coloured crayon first that I realised that his feelings for me were more than platonic. I would catch him watching me during stories, and I’m pretty sure he bribed the teacher to be put on guinea-pig duty with me. It culminated in the best love note I have received to date. I caught him dropping it in my letterbox at home: “Dear Fiona, Do you want to come round to my house and draw ninja turtles? Love Mike.” I don’t recall acting on this confession of love. I do recall that it was adorned with his favourite turtle, the blue one. Mine was Raphael, so I knew it would never work. I didn’t tell him as much, but he must have realised when he found “Mike smells” scrawled in the mint crayon on the cloakroom wall. Not my finest hour admittedly. Mike’s unrequited love grew dim and we drifted apart. Tragic, but true story.
*Not his real name”

Via NZHerald.

Via YouTube.