So…………………this is real. Any joke I make will only be trumped by the actual video, so I am not going to bother. Oh God, it’s so tempting though! My wits are screaming at my fingers! Thanks to rmcld for posting.

Much love

Travis

Discussion: Read 5 Comments »

Here’s what I didn’t need in my insanely busy and productive life right now; FlickChart! I spent (no fucking joke) 8 straight hours on this thing the other day. The creators of this site are genius. The idea is simple enough. They present you with two movies, for example, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Reservoir Dogs . Your job is to decide which is better. There is no SKIP button. You are forced to make  the call before they present you with two new options. The site then begins to chart the films, putting them in order. Every vote alters the order of your films, creating an amazing way to keep a BEST OF list. 

That’s the site in a nutshell, but allow me to expand on why I really think this site is brilliant for cinephiles. As I was playing around on it, a few of my co-workers began looking over my shoulder. Before long they were just as involved as I was, blurting out who they would vote for. I realized that this was a fun game for all. Yes, good clean fun. And then it happened. The site decided to play an insanely cruel trick on us and flipped over Jaws vs Alien . Our jaws (I swear the pun was not intended) hit the ground so hard that it rattled our skulls and forced our eyeballs to hang off our faces at nose level. Jaws vs Alien? How does one even begin to place one on a higher pedestal. Both are near-perfect (if not perfect) movies and both mean the world to me. We sat around for over 25 minutes discussing both movies in detail, and that’s when it hit me. This amazing site actually encourages and inspires conversations about film. It forces you to re-examine movies and what actually made them great. The opposing movies will inspire new insight to each other and get you thinking about themes, dialog, characters and story. Suddenly it was no longer a good way to waste time, but a educational way to deconstruct films. 

Here’s some of the harder battles I have had to pick so far:

Raiders of the Lost Ark vs Back to the Future

A Nightmare on Elm Street  vs Gremlins

The Shining vs Brazil

Raging Bull vs Network

The site has not officially launched and it is still in BETA testing form. To sign up and play go HERE. They will send you an invitation to join. Don’t get discouraged though. It took over a week before I got my invitation after I signed up. It’s well worth the wait.

Much love

Travis

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[flashvideo file=http://travisbetz.com/video/DavidHasslehoff.flv width=550 height=330 frontcolor=a63054 lightcolor=bf5c7a skin=stylish image=http://travisbetz.com/video/David-Hasslehoff.jpg /]

Allow me to take a couple minutes of your life and introduce you to one of my favorite things. A compilation of scenes from the recorded Broadway stage version of David Hasslehoff starring in Jekyll & Hyde the musical (BREATHE)! If this series of clips doesn’t put a grin on your grill then you are dead inside. Please pay special attention to his TRANSFORMATION scene.

I once met Mr. Hasslehoff in the most surreal of environments. It was the Playboy mansion. I was there through a connection at work, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the magazine (that should tell you it was a huge party). I was enjoying myself and sucking down jell-o shots off the trays of painted naked ladies, when across the room I spied a figure in all  black leather. My jaw hit the floor. It was him. The man who’s DVD I had found so many years ago, that had given my friends and I so many intoxicated nights of belly laughs. It was Jekkyll and Hyde himself. DAVID FUCKING HASSLEHOFF! 

I was pretty drunk at this point, and the bunnies were paying very little attention to me, so I decided that I had to speak with this legend of the beach turned Broadway thespian. I walked right up to him and his entourage and planted myself in the group. Turning to David I said, “I just want you know, I’m a huge Jekyll and Hyde fan.” That sentence was all it took. The Hoff’s eyes grew so wide that I covered my face in fear they would explode, covering me in celebrity eye juice. The Hoff proceeded to tell me how J&H was the role of a lifetime for him and how much he loved the classic tale. He talked and talked. For 20 minutes I stood there while David H. Christ Hasslehoff talked to me about this show, Robert Louis Stevenson, the duality of man, and singing while playing two characters at once. When it was over I was in a blurry trance (or just really damn drunk). I stumbled around the party not sure what just happened. What a most curious evening here at the house that Hugh built. Most curious indeed.

Much Love

Travis

Discussion: Read 9 Comments »