Fingermaze

Bizarro Reflections.

2009-12-02T23:10:00.004-05:00

Universal Tool...

2009-06-11T10:40:00.002-04:00

IT'S HAPPENING! THE MACHINES ARE REBELLING! RUN! RUUUNNNN!

2009-06-02T10:54:00.002-04:00

"Someone could have done what I did."

2009-04-02T12:56:00.017-04:00

Lately I am kinda intrigued by the tragic life & death of Michael Larson

He would fit in perfectly with all the Coen Brothers heroes: Bernie Bernbaum, Jerry Lundegaard, Ed Crane and Osborne Cox, to name a few.

I don't know if any of you are familiar with his story but Larson was a dreamer from Lebanon, Ohio who was always looking for a way to make a fast buck.
Unemployed and down on his luck, he decided he would figure out a way to make money on daytime tv game shows.
He set up about 5 tv's and 3 vcr's and watched and taped every quiz show on tv until he found something on the "Press your Luck" gameboard. He noticed that the movement of the light used for the 18-square "Big Board" only had five patterns. He memorised the patterns by taping the show and studying the lights frame by frame.

Armed with this knowledge Larson went to Hollywood in June 1984, to audition for the show. Reluctant at first, the producers decided to give him a chance.
After a disappointing first round, Mike started raking in the money,
While Larson was running up the score, the producers contacted Michael Brockman, head of CBS's daytime programming department. He was later quoted saying:

"Something was very wrong. Here was this guy from nowhere, and he was hitting the bonus box every time. It was bedlam, I can tell you. And we couldn't stop this guy. He kept going around the board and hitting that box."

Brockman pressed the CBS lawyers to prove that what Larson had done was illegal. They couldn't. "What everyone finally was forced to acknowledge," says Robert Noak, a game-show executive, "was that what he did was legitimate. After all, nowhere in the rules did it say that you couldn't pay attention."

Larson ended up winning $110,237.

But wait there's more....

After returning to Ohio, he made some bad financial decisions and lost a great deal of his money as the victim of a ponzi scheme.
Larson then learned about a get-rich-quick scheme involving matching a one dollar bill's serial number with a random number read out on a local radio game show that promised a $30,000 jackpot. Larson withdrew his remaining gameshow winnings in one dollar bills daily, in hopes of winning the contest. He would examine each dollar carefully and upon discovering that he did not have the winning number, would place all the money back in his account, only to withdraw it again the next day and repeat the process all over again. Larson's wife at the time, Teresa Dinwitty, stated that this obsession consumed him.
At one point, Larson and Dinwitty left to attend a Christmas party, leaving approximately USD $40,000-50,000 in bagged one dollar bills in the house. Upon returning, they found that the house had been broken into, and the money stolen. Larson angrily accused Dinwitty of some involvement; Dinwitty, already fed up with Larson's antics, promptly left him.

Having lost most of his money, Larson called the producers of Press Your Luck, challenging them to put him back on the show and see if he could crack the board patterns again. The producers declined.
Shortly thereafter, Larson got involved with an illegal scheme to sell part of a nationwide lottery. As a result, Larson went on-the-run, leaving Ohio. His family was contacted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but none knew his whereabouts.
He died of throat cancer in 1999 in Apopka, Florida.

Source:Wikipedia

Part 1 of the documentary: 'Big Bucks: the Press your Luck Scandal'
(bad quality but a fascinating watch; 12 parts mind you!)

smart advertising...

2009-03-20T10:22:00.001-04:00

"Drank a lot of water...."

2009-03-17T10:09:00.001-04:00

"I think it best that you and I should return to the holodeck'

2009-03-04T08:50:00.002-05:00

The PInocchio Paradox.

2009-03-01T03:12:00.002-05:00

Feels like spring...

2009-02-10T23:17:00.003-05:00

Can't wait to build sandcastles...What? Wait.......

Extremely cool stairs...

2009-02-08T16:57:00.002-05:00

I want them.

He's all around us.

2009-02-05T14:50:00.005-05:00

Isn't it wonderful how the human mind works? Apparently we have a knack of recognizing faces in every day objects. That phenomenon is called pareidolia . Most famous of course are the shroud of Turin, or when people see Jesus or the Virgin Mary in a peace of toast or some dirt on a window. That's called acheiropoieta (yeah I looked that up). One of the most stunning examples I came across lately is this vintage photo of a child sitting on a man's lap. You actually have to look hard to see beyond the face to see the actual picture.

Leave the Auditorium for the next 90 seconds.

2009-02-03T11:39:00.006-05:00

Rumor has it that Herschell Gordon Lewis ordered a pint of stage blood for his upcoming movie, but ended up with a barrel of the stuff instead and decided to make 'Blood Feast', incidentally inventing the splatter genre. True or not, it makes for a good story. Critics were relentless and called the movie "an insult even to the most puerile and salacious of audiences".
For today's standards, the special effects are very poorly executed, nontheless the movie has an eerie and unsettling quality to it. Watch the trailer at your own peril (NSFW).

You all sssuck!

2009-02-02T15:08:00.005-05:00

OK so this guy is trying to sell leather jackets and then goes off on a rant about Hillary Clinton and how she wasted all that money trying to become prez and how she shoulda used it for the State of New York and on and on, Sopranos style. People are standing around for no reason, other than make it even more uncomfortable. And it gets better.
This is hilarious and disturbing at the same time.

NOT football! Handegg!

2009-02-01T15:48:00.001-05:00

After watching the Superbowl I am going to explain this one more time:

Everything you've ever heard about him is probably true, or should be anyway.

2009-01-21T09:27:00.006-05:00

In the late 1970s, Jay Adams was a leading figure in the vert skateboarding scene rising from a seedy section of Santa Monica and Venice known as Dogtown.Adams had been a talented member of the Dogtown-based Zephyr Skate Team, known as the Z-Boys. Together they helped shape modern skateboarding with an aggressive attitude and style born in the streets, and maneuvers inspired by their favorite surfers.
In the early 80's it all went downhill for Jay. He turned his back on pro skating (he hated the commercialism that came with it), hung out with the wrong people and started doing drugs.
At one point he got involved in a fight, someone died and he was convicted of felony assault and sentenced to six months in prison.
From there on it was in and out of prison for Adams for about 2 decades.
In the late 90's he was in his own words, “a down-and-out junkie.”
After a documentary and a feature film about the Z-Boys gained international attention, Jay seemed to be able to climb out of this black hole, sign some endorsement deals and for the first time make some money out of his cult status. Alas, he started doing drugs again, and was arrested in 2005 after being wiretapped by the feds on a meth deal.
Adams did time in Oregon and is currently in a half way house in Garden Cove, CA.
He works as a facilities manager at an indoor skatepark.

(photo: Mark Avery)

Benjamin Forrest Button Gump

2009-01-20T10:55:00.003-05:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Jožin z bažin kouše, saje, rdousí.

2009-01-19T23:32:00.000-05:00

Jožin z bažin is the name of a 1972 song by Chzech comedian Ivan Mládek. It's a folk song about a man capturing a man eating bog monster named Jožin and selling it to a zoo. The video of this song has become somewhat of an internet phenomenon, mainly because of the mad dancing skills of Ivo Pešák, who pops up at every refrain. That man deserves a statue (preferably an animatronic one).

I met him, he seems nice. (she's a bitch though)

2009-01-16T11:38:00.016-05:00

As if life isn't complicated enough as it is, you are apparently constantly missing out on what others have to say about you. And believe me, they are talking about you. All the time.
Luckily you can now feed your paranoia monster with nifty devices like 'Listen Up' and 'Loud n clear'. Hear everything anybody anywhere has to say about you at anytime. Go to sports events and hear the blonde Neanderthal next to you roar 'till your ears bleed. Try to enjoy nature while you are haunted by your own footsteps. I hope they have one that goes to 11.

You'll swear you're watching the real thing!

2009-01-15T08:06:00.018-05:00

TROMA has been making, promoting and distributing independent low-budget entertainment for over 30 years. Most of their movies are sick, deranged, campy and hilarious. It cannot be denied that they have been a major influence on the way we watch movies today. Although not all TROMA films are good , they are just that, TROMA films. They are not made on Hollywood multimillion dollar budgets as you can clearly see in the trailer for... A NYMPHOID BARBARIAN IN DINOSAUR HELL! (count how many times they say that and collect your prize!)

Shoulda seen what I had inna bed wi' me.

2009-01-14T14:57:00.013-05:00

Hasil Adkins (pronounced Hassle) (1936 - 2005), was an Appalachian country, rock and roll and blues musician, who is nowadays considered a pioneer of the rockabilly genre. As a demented one-man band, he played guitar and drums at the same time, while singing his crazy songs about ghouls, cars, chicken, women and hotdogs.
In 2005, Adkins was deliberately run over in his front yard by a teenager on an ATV. He was found dead in his home ten days later.
One of his most famous songs is "She said":

Here's Hasil performing She Said on a kid show (!) with as a bonus the Ghoul A Go-Go house band rocking out!

There is no way out of here. It'll be dark soon. There is no way out of here.

2009-01-13T12:48:00.013-05:00

For a long time 'Manos, the Hands of Fate' had the questionable honor to be IMDb's worst movie of all time. Thanks to Mystery Science Theater 3000 the movie had a short revival and created a cult following. People started to give it a 10 rating and knocked it off its #1 spot. There was a renewed interest especially for 'Torgo,' a character played by John Reynolds (1941-1966). Torgo, the Igor-like sidekick to the films protagonist hams it up in every scene with his strange delivery, bewildered looks and crazy gestures. Legend has it that Reynolds designed his own prosthetics to make it look like he had goat's feet, but was wearing them wrong, which caused him great discomfort and led him to become addicted to pain killers, which resulted in his untimely death.

Hi, how are you?

2009-01-12T09:58:00.013-05:00

Some say Daniel Johnston (1961) is one of the most influential artists of his generation. His high pitched voice can make your skin crawl, but it somehow contributes to his haunting lyrics. He is a diagnosed manic-depressive and that is reflected in his songs. During his live shows Johnston comes across as shy and uncertain, edging on terrified.
In 2005 director Jeff Feuerzeig made a documentary about Johnston, "the Devil and Daniel Johnston." Using archived film clips and recordings with newly shot footage and interviews, the film paints a detailed and honest picture of a tortured artist.

Russ Meyer

2009-01-09T09:11:00.009-05:00

Balancing between soft-core and screwball comedy, the movies of director Russ Meyer (1922-2004) all have one thing in common: There will be boobs. As a lover of the female form, Meyer cast an abundance of very well endowed women.
Tura Satana, Ushi Digard, Haji and Kitten Natividad are amongst his leading ladies, who, as he put it as he once put it, "hold the record at Lane Bryant."

It would have been easy money for Meyer to descend into hardcore porn. He never did.
"The porn theaters were controlled by the mob and I didn't want to share my profits with them."
The women depicted in all of his movies are strong independent sexual characters, while the men are the "mindless sex objects". Meyer's movies are violent, campy, sexy and above all funny.

If Meyer is a sexist pig, then so is Madonna , who has popularized the same images in many of her reincarnations. Meyer is almost unique in the world of popular eroticism in not seeing women as passive victims, but as aggressive and demanding sexual beings who demand that their needs be met. One of the reasons Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill" is having such a startling box office revival around the world is that it argues for those images in such a dramatic way.
-Roger Ebert-

Bunker Spreckels

2009-01-08T01:00:00.002-05:00

I just watched the trailer for“Bunker77”, a documentary about surfer/playboy Bunker Spreckels, who was a close friend of skate legend Tony Alva. Adolph ‘Bunker’ Spreckels came into a massive inheritance in the early 1970's. When he turned twenty-one he went to the bank with an armored car, took $ 50 million home in cold hard cash and went on a wild and infamous binge of surfing, skating, traveling and hedonism (read 'sex, drugs & rock'n'roll) before his death in 1976.

Intrigued? Check this interview or read this book.

Billy Mays

2009-01-07T10:17:00.006-05:00

You may not know his name, or his face but you will definitely know his voice: Mr. Infotainment himself Billy Mays. Yelling at you as if you were a 87 year old deaf geriatric patient, he will try to sell you stuff you really don't need. And not ONE, not TWO but THREE of them! From OxiClean®, Orange Clean®, Kaboom®, Hercules Hook, Samurai Shark, and Zorbeeze, to a whole array of slicers and dicers. And you know what's funny?
WE BUY IT! Why? Nobody knows. Maybe to shut him up.

the Shaggs

2009-01-06T09:45:00.000-05:00

One of the most fascinating bands I have come across in my never ending quest for bad must be the Shaggs from Fremont, NH. This all girl powertrio had a unique approach to song structure and lyrics, to say the least. Their 'one note per syllable' songs are very unusual yet compelling.

Scot Hacker said it best:

"Think of the most embarrassingly sincere Hallmark card you’ve ever received, and crank its saccharine quotient up to ten. Now imagine yourself writing that card with absolutely no awareness that it will be perceived as corny by its recipient. Now you’re starting to walk in The Shaggs’ shoes. It takes a very special kind of mind to get there. A special way of being completely removed from culture and “cool” to pack a moral message into every stanza while playing music so herky-jerky and stilted — and yet so totally gonzo — that most garage bands would be stultified if they so much as tried to reproduce the sound."

Somebody please get the rights to Joy Gregory's stage musical about the girls' strange life story and make this movie. You'll have a sure fire winner at Sundance next year.

I want bigger.

2009-01-05T10:13:00.002-05:00

No people, this is NOT from a porno, it is the hilariously bad Samurai Cop . If there ever was an Oscar^® for unnecessary editing , bad dialogue and bad hair this movie would win them all. (NSFW language)