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* My good friend JH Williams got me the ALIEN QUADRILOGY box set for my birthday, and I have now successfully watched all 4,300 hours of supplemental material. It was all extraordinarily well-produced, but the highlight, oddly enough, is the two-hour making-of feature for ALIEN³. The frankness of the people involved is astonishing. Writers, actors, producers, effects people all openly discussing the disappointment they felt as they were making what they knew was going to be a bad movie. One disaster after another, with plummeting morale all around. It’s a really unique insight into what “plagued by production problems” really means. And, no surprise, it all started when studio executives started rewriting the story to make it more marketable.

* On the insistence of another friend (TWO friends? No way!) I watched the much-lauded Canadian documentary THE CORPORATION and was completely blown away. It’s one of those rare docs that everyone should be forced to watch at least once. It touches on a lot of the themes in Naomi Klein’s work (she’s featured heavily in the film), but goes much further in pursuing its central question: if a corporation really is a “person” according to the law, what kind of person is it? Highest recommendation.

* Albums in heavy rotation right now: Eisley - COMBINATIONS, Various - MARIE ANTOINETTE: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK, Flight of the Conchords - FOTC, Patton Oswalt - WEREWOLVES & LOLLIPOPS, Spearmint - PARIS IN A BOTTLE

* Fuck you, I happen to *like* M. Night Shyamalan movies. Y’all haters need to quit. For real.

* BOOM BLOX for the Wii is roughly as addictive as Percocet.

* I know I’m late to the party, but has there ever been anything as awesome as THE VENTURE BROS.? I’m pretty sure there hasn’t.

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“It was the first time I saw a baboon face to face. They said whatever you do don’t look him in the eye, so that’s all I could do. They actually let me in. Some irresponsible bastard said let’s put Marilyn Manson on ecstasy in a cage with a big ass baboon.”

Link.

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Since I missed last week’s BDF (because I was at freakin’ DISNEYLAND!), here’s a double-dose to close it out right.

First up: Hey! Haven’t you ever wanted to see what Lionel Ritchie playing soccer would look like? Well, wonder no more, my little chipwiches! Check out the weirdly inappropriate video for the Commodores’ 1980 hit “Lady (You Bring Me Up)” and marvel at how ineffective of a goalkeeper Nicole’s daddy was.

Lastly, here’s another one by the Gap Band. ‘Cause they’re awesome. And they dress like the most awesome gay cowboys EVER.

Notice how much better their choreography is than the Commodores’? And how much less commercially successful they were? Connection? Something to think about…

Stay groovy, my babies.

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Via eBay:

The Menatone “Ms. Foxy Brown” Overdrive Pedal.

Your guitar has never sounded more badasssssss.

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Things to do this weekend:

1. Referee a boxing match between an old woman and an old man
2. Strap on a banana hammock and dance in the surf
3. Dance down the street with two buddies, all of us dressed in leather cowboy costumes
4. Convince a Buddhist monk to breakdance

DON’T MISS THE PARTY TRAIN, PEOPLE!!

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As music historians have noted, there were two discos. The white disco, exemplified by such whitey standard-bearers as The BeeGees and KC & the Sunshine Band, and then there was the black — or “good” — disco: Kool & the Gang, The Commodores, The Gap Band. Over the last 30-odd years, this form of disco has been scientifically and sociologically proven in several university studies to be the booty-shakin’-est music ever produced by modern man.

Here at FrankBeaton.com, we are committed to making you all shake your groove thangs and get up, uh get on up, on the dance floor. So for the next four weeks, every Friday, we will be presenting some of the finest in black disco.

First up is the Grammy-winning(!) “Let it Whip” by Dazz Band, which is currently being used on a commercial for a delicious candy bar. If this doesn’t make you dance, you’re likely suffering from clinical depression and you should talk to your doctor.

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WARREN
Dude, Portishead is coming out with a new album. Weird, huh?

ME
That's awesome! That means we're all going to get laid!

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Whenever I’m in a really good mood, I listen to old Metallica — particularly MASTER OF PUPPETS or RIDE THE LIGHTNING.

What’s weird is, I never made that connection until now.

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At MTV’s insistence (read: the most annoyingly pushy marketing campaign I’ve ever seen), I have listened to the Kate Nash album.

“Merry Happy” is a good song. “Birds” is almost a good song. The rest of it? Crap.

Total crap.

Update: Gave it another selective listen. “Birds” actually is a good song. And the hidden track after “Merry Happy” is excellent (didn’t hear it the first time through).

I still hated that ad push. (Although when they spliced her into the CLOVERFIELD commercial, it did prompt me to say, “Approximately one hour ago, a coquettish singer-songwriter attacked the city…” And that was kind of funny.)

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So… we all agree that goth is dead, right?

Sometime in the late 90s, it morphed and diluted, became less morbidly epic and more self-involved, and the disenfranchised youth who almost certainly would have become goths all became emo kids (or Juggalos), instead. And that’s fine. Times change and subcultures have a tendency to wear out their welcome. But even though the damaged girls of the 21st century would rather look like Joan Jett than Siouxsie Sioux, and even though I look back at my own short-lived goth period with more than a little embarrassment, I think we have to admit that some pretty kick-ass stuff came out of it. Everyone with a heart likes The Cure, and everyone with a dark sense of humor (and a bookshelf full of dogeared classics) likes Nick Cave.

But I have to say, my vote for best goth song (and video!) of all time goes to “Nemesis” by Shriekback. [embedding disabled]

So epic! So evil! So Apocalyp-tastic! It’s what Sir Miles has on his iPod and the goddamn thing makes me giddy.

Embrace the darkness! It’s fun!

(Also worth mentioning: TOWARD THE WITHIN by Dead Can Dance — the sexiest sex-music album ever recorded.)

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