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Movie Review: Gigantic
The documentary is a solid mix of band history and irrelevant pieces (would you expect anything different?). While I can not say that I got a good history on how the two Jon's actually started playing together from the documentary, I did learn a lot about their early successes and the director did a wonderful job of putting together scenes from different periods to give the audience an idea about how the band's early years were. The documentary does reveal how "Dial A Song" got started after a biking messenger accident left Linnell unable to play. We even get to see some photos, complete with price tag, of the actual machine. Flansburgh talks for a bit about how personal "Dial A Song" is and the entire experience of getting to be one with the machine.
The documentary was shot in video and in places comes out a little grainy. Some of the concert scenes definitely show off some of the short comings of the medium (this is not Lucus style digital filming). Despite this the film had a fully packed house during its opening in Seattle and the theater had to turn away 150 people at the door.
The director mentioned that their last showing of the film at SXSW had similar sized crowds. Hopefully this will mean that some distributor will pick up the film so the more people will get a chance to see it. If you are lucky enough to live in one of the cities that it will be playing in, and you love the band's music I can easily recommend going to see it.
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I can't think of anything more boring than a film like this!
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krow's a fuckin' homo.
Hello,
Recently I've been introduced to an operating system known as Linux.
Lured by its low cost, I replaced Windows 98 on my computer with Linux. Unfortunately the more I use it the more I fear that this "Linux" may be an insidious way for the Dark One to gain a stronger foothold here on Earth. I know this may be a shocking claim, but I have evidence to back it up!
To begin with, Linux is based off of an older, obsolete OS called "BSD Unix". The child-indoctrinatingly-cute cartoon mascot of this OS is a devil holding a pitchfork. This OS -- and its Linux offspring -- extensively use what are unsettingly called "daemons" (which is how Pagans write "demon" -- they are notoriously poor spellers: magick, vampyre, etc.) which is a program that hides in the background, doing things without the user's notice. If you are using a computer running Linux then you probably have these "demons" on your computer, hardly something a good Christian would want! Furthermore in order to start or stop these "demons" a user must execute a command called "finger". By "fingering" a "demon" one excercises an unholy power, much the same way that the Lord of Flies controls his black minions.
Linux contains another Satanic holdover from the "BSD Unix" OS mentioned above; to open up certain locked files one has to run a program much like the DOS prompt in Microsoft Windows and type in a secret code: "chmod 666". What other horrors lurk in this thing?
Consider some of these other Linux commands: "sleep", "mount", "unzip", "strip" and "touch". All highly suggestive in a sexual
nature. I know that our Lord cannot approve of these, and I urge them to be renamed to something appropriate to the Christian community. Interestingly "CONTROL-G" (the sixth key from the left of the keyboard) does an abort. To write files a "VI" editor is included. All these are to ensnare the unsuspecting christian who could get tempted by typing "VIVIVI" all day long.
Fourth, Linux uses a flavor of DOS known as Bash. Bash is an acronym for "Bourne Again Shell". On the surface this would appear to be supportive of the Lord. However, remember that even Satan can quote the bible for his own purposes! While I believe Linux may be born-again, its obvious by the misspelling of "born" that its not born-again in an Christian church. Will the lies ever cease?
Additionally, one of the main long-haired hippies involved with the GNU Free Software Foundation supports communism, contraception and abortion. He has consistently supported 60's counter-cultural "values", and his web site even advocates government support of contraception. He also wears fake halos, and has quips about his made-up church that relates to his free software. I find such blasphemy to be extremely unsettling.
One must also remember that the creator of Linux, a college student named Linux Torvaldis, comes from Finland. I'm sure all the followers of Christ are aware of the heritical nature of the Finnish: from necrophilia to human sacrifice, Finnish culture is awash in sin. I find little reason to believe anything good and holy could arise from this evil land.
Finally, let us remember that there is an alternative to using the Satan-powered Linux. I think history has shown us that Microsoft is quite holy. I'm told that its founder, William Gates is a strong supporter of our Lord and I encourage my fellow Christians to buy only his products to help keep the Devil at bay.
I wish I had more time to expound upon my findings. Unfortunately a family of Jews has moved in across the street and I must go speak to them of Jesus Christ before they are condemned to eternal hellfire.
Please investigate this as you see fit and I'm sure you'll reach the same conclusions that I have.
no more war!
This post is also for pies!
no more cake!!!!
Cmon Guys! Keept the trolls coming. 6 all-troll comments and counting
I went to see it, but I thought it was going to be a porno.
It is here!
They might be GAY.
in other news, I have to take a shit
The review almost makes me want to see the movie...
Almost...
Ah, but then I remember the music, and how songs like "I've Got a Match" make me wish that I, too, had one with which to start a bonfire contains the collected works of TMBG.
Actually, that's an exaggeration (I don't hate them that much) but TMBG always remind me of the unfunny people in high school who thought saying things like "elephant noodles!" would somehow automatically be hilarious. Alas, they forgot that incongruity alone does not guarantee a funny...
I do give them props for recording that song without electricity, though.
OMFG teh loged in trools r teh biggest fagorts omfg lamahs!!!!1
...if all of the previous posts are trolling?
Anyway, does anyone know how this is being distributed? I'm a big TMBG fan, but I don't know how I'll ever actually get to see this movie...
I don't understand the love for They Might Be Giants among nerds. They are terrible musicians, and thier lyrics may be quirky, but mainly they're just nonsensical. At least BNL can pull of quirky and actually have songs with deeper meaning and musical value.
www.jbs.org[jbs.org]
...is this film eventually going to be made available on video or something for those of us living in the back of beyond?
Does anyone know?
I can't exactly take off work and drive to one of the remote places where it's showing, but I'd love to see it anyway.
represent, niggaz and niggettez!
"...even two hours worth of staring at a black screen, and as long as they played some music I would have loved it."
Doesn't this make your review pretty worthless?
When I come home late at night from E3, I toss my keys on the table, and say hello to Ferris.
I drop my fully-loaded "X-Box" bag-o-schwag on the floor, and sit down at my computer to check emails and make sure porn has not been banned from the internet. Oh good, it's still there.
It's late at night, and the rest of my house is asleep. The only sound other than my typing is that soft comforting hum of the fan in my computer. The room is dark, except for the light falling off of my monitor.
He's sitting in my open zipper, just outside the monitor's soft glow, staring at me.
"Hey, Wesley, I've got some good news."
"You've had a change of heart, and you're going to put me in a Jello mold with Counselor Troi and Princess Leia?"
"No. First of all, Princess Leia isn't even the right scale for you --"
"Who said anything about scale? I'm articulated!"
"Do you want to hear the good news, or not?"
He sighs the perturbed yet insecure sigh of an 18 year-old's penis. He strains his little body against the cold steel of the zipper.
"Yes."
"You're way more popular that I thought. People have bid nearly 300 dollars to suck you on eBay! You're a hit, Crusher! They love you!"
He stops straining and looks at me, incredulous.
"What?"
"Yeah! Take a look."
I pick him up and turn him to face the nude photo of Serenity.
"Hey, slow down, jackass. You're going to give me motion sickness."
I wonder if this is the correct penis. I wonder if I've picked up Anne's dildo, instead. I spin him around again, and look for the tell tale scar he got when I accidentally got him stuck in the vacuum cleaner rotor, but it's not there. I guess he's just cranky.
"Dude! Take it easy!"
"Sorry."
I slowly turn him back around, and point him at the monitor. I click the URL, and show him the money shot.
"See? Isn't that cool? All this time we thought people hated us, but they like us, Wesley! They really like us!"
He is silent for a moment, and when he finally speaks, his voice is thick with emotion.
"Yeah. That's....well....that's really cool," he says, and I swear I can feel the penis shudder a little bit in my hands.
"Hey, Wheaton,"
"Yeah?"
"Can you just put me down on the desk for awhile? I've...uh...I think I have something in my eye."
"Are you premeturely ejaculating, Wesley?"
"Shut up, Wheaton."
For more masturbatory commentary, please visit wilwheaton.net
all you people who post about linux instead of the topic are just silly billies. I love the johns. During the Sunshine Tour I got to see them in Michigan and happened to find out that afterwards they'd be doing an intimate show at the local Tower Records... price of admission: canned food for the needy. Off we went to the supermarket :)
I got to sit on the floor of tower records, front row... and watch the Johns & band play. It was awesome. My friend Ben adn I even reached out pre-show and touched the coveted accordion. Whooooa. Been lovin their stuff for years now.
John Henry made me scared that they may turn mainstream... but that fear passed as their lyrics stayed insane. Phew!
Here's to all the johns.
Checkout this website too... they did the soundtrack for it: www.ChoppingBlock.com
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
geeks are cats who dig a certain kind of cool
hooray!
Oh this is terrible, I have to take ANOTHER shit
this is about the most worthless story ever posted to slashdot. nice work krow you POS. your in-depth review really hit the nail on the head. i almost gave a fuck what you were talking about. and you admitting to liking these wannabe musicians just gives me a lot of insight into you shallow, sad little world. thanks for sharing it all with us. maybe you can post a review of your mom's home cooked meals next week, that's probably more entertaining than the crap you just dealt us. "wow i actually did something with my friday night, better post a story on slashdot!" this is your mentality. a mentality of a 12-year old boy. don't you think this is sad?? don't you need a girlfriend? or just a friend even? come on krow, demand better for yourself. and stop deluging us with your crappy anecdotes and stories.
If you're going to borrow someone's work, please credit your sources. Thank you. And don't bring shame upon my troll by posting AC.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
i am a pirate
Getting a FP only counts if your a member of CLIT: The Community of Logged In Trolls. Come join us. Its a lot more fun than following the standard Slashdot party line!
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
I work as a consultant for several fortune 500 companies, and I think I can shed a little light on the climate of the open source community at the moment. I believe that part of the reason that open source based startups are failing left and right is not an issue of marketing as it's commonly believed but more of an issue of the underlying technology.
I know that that's a strong statement to make, but I have evidence to back it up! At one of the major corps(5000+ employees) that I consult for, we wanted to integrate Linux into our server pool. The allure of not having to pay any restrictive licensing fees was too great to ignore. I reccomended the installation of several boxes running the new 2.4.9 kernel, and my hopes were high that it would perform up to snuff with the Windows 2k boxes which were(and still are!) doing an AMAZING job at their respective tasks of serving HTTP requests, DNS, and fileserving.
I consider myself to be very technically inclined having programmed in VB for the last 8 years doing kernel level programming. I don't believe in C programming because contrary to popular belief, VB can go just as low level as C and the newest VB compiler generates code that's every bit as fast. I took it upon myself to configure the system from scratch and even used an optimised version of gcc 3.1 to increase the execution speed of the binaries. I integrated the 3 machines I had configured into the server pool, and I'd have to say the results were less than impressive... We all know that linux isn't even close to being ready for the desktop, but I had heard that it was supposed to perform decently as a "server" based operating system. The 3 machines all went into swap immediately, and it was obvious that they weren't going to be able to handle the load in this "enterprise" environment. After running for less than 24 hours, 2 of them had experienced kernel panics caused by Bind and Apache crashing! Granted, Apache is a volunteer based project written by weekend hackers in their spare time while Microsft's IIS has an actual professional full fledged development team devoted to it. Not to mention the fact that the Linux kernel itself lacks any support for any type of journaled filesystem, memory protection, SMP support, etc, but I thought that since Linux is based on such "old" technology that it would run with some level of stability. After several days of this type of behaviour, we decided to reinstall windows 2k on the boxes to make sure it wasn't a hardware problem that was causing things to go wrong. The machines instantly shaped up and were seamlessly reintegrated into the server pool with just one Win2K machine doing more work than all 3 of the Linux boxes.
Needless to say, I won't be reccomending Linux/FSF to anymore of my clients. I'm dissappointed that they won't be able to leverege the free cost of Linux to their advantage, but in this case I suppose the old adage stands true that, "you get what you pay for." I would have also liked to have access to the source code of the applications that we're running on our mission critical systems; however, from the looks of it, the Microsoft "shared source" program seems to offer all of the same freedoms as the GPL.
As things stand now, I can understand using Linux in academia to compile simple "Hello World" style programs and learn C programming, but I'm afraid that for anything more than a hobby OS, Windows 98/NT/2K are your only choices.
thank you.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
It bothers me when people refer to people as 'terrible musicians'. Music, like many art forms is subjective. I never got the appeal of Picasso, but I don't think he's a 'terrible painter'.
The thing about TMBG is you have to have very eclectic taste in music to appreciate them. Their style is all over the place, and you can't just hear one or two songs and know what they sound like. If you were to play 'Boss of Me', 'Particle Man', and 'A Self Called Nowhere' next to each other, a newcomer would be hard pressed to believe it's the same band.
The depth of their songs comes from figuring out what exactly they're about. Their songs are rarely simply nonsense, they just don't ever directly tell you what they're supposed to mean.
'Birdhouse In Your Soul' for example. Here's a song that seems to make very little sense at all. The trick is that if you pay attention, it's a song written from the perspective of a nightlight shaped like a canary.
Someone once told me song lyrics are like poetry with a learning disability. TMBG lyrics are like poetry with a severe case of insomnia that can't stop giggling...
C==/_o|^|o_\
| _\ )
\ '---'/ HEY GUESS WHAT ??????
_/`-. __.'_
/ \
/ , ||| |\ , \ WHEN WE GREW THE FUCK UP
| |:===: / | | |
|
\ \ '-' \/ /
`\ \==I==[]=/
\o_\ |o/ P.S. NICE FUCKING POCKET
/ ) |\ PROTECTOR DIPSHIT
|
|/| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
\ > >
| | |
|_____|__|
[_____]__]
|==|==|
ass ( , `~~)`~~)
"""`~~~`~~~`
Allowed HTML: <B> <I> <P> <A> <LI> <OL> <UL> <EM> <BR> <TT> <STRONG> <BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>
Important Stuff:
Damn, I want that movie more than a rock to tie a piece of string around.
I was viewing slash normally and then I saw THIS it was very weird
i am a pirate
Hoist the mainsail, then swab the poopdeck. That's the life of a slashdot-pirate, matey.
I AM JACK REID!
let's build more turkeys!
WHERE is my PROVOLONE
Honest to god truth... when I got the tickets I had no idea what the movie would be about. I got my hopes up and was let down - BIG TIME.
Rob malda likes 'em young!
Of course having one of the John's, Flansburgh that is, plus the director AJ Schnack show up to the screening only added to the value.Why?
*Everybody* wants a rock to tie a piece of string around.
I FUCKING WILL!!!
I dub your post '+1, FUNNY'
this post is for the ONE GREAT GOAT
Jon Barrett has a pretty gigantic asshole.
Thank you.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
They aren't about being funny. They are about making the music they want to make. They cover many styles of music across their 9 albums. Their songs sometimes describe very odd people or settingsm but they usually tell a story too. In fact, "I've Got a Match", for example, is a song about a guy fighting with his girlfriend and finally leaving her. He's calling insensitive and hurtful, and tell her "I've got a match - Your embrace and my collapse". They tend to use somewhat silly lyrics, but they get the point across.
(BTW, the original phrase is "I've got a match - your face and my as*")
And I actually USE Linux.
Umm.. wow.. all I see is trolls..
We can't watch this movie? It's only played twice? Then why the heck is it being reviewed??? So some elitist Ebert wannabe can brag about how cool he is, that he got in when others were turned away? What's the point of this review? Might as well review a 9.5mm silent movie from the 20s.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
POST: 3665282
The Department of Homeland Security is required by law to notify you that you have been identified as a terrorist threat and your recent post (3665282) has been logged in your e-dossier.
The Department of Homeland Security is also required to notify you that you may access your e-dossier through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
TMBG used to have an inovative service called "dial-a-song". You call a phone number which is answered by a restored vintage answering machine and listen to an unreleased song. A computer hooked up to the answering machine changes the song to another unreleased song once an hour.
The album liner notes always said something like "Remember, the call is free if you call from work".
I just noticed that they now have a dial-a-song webpage, which is also free when you connect from work!
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
It does'nt say where the movie will play or when.
/.), why would somebody make a website for a movie that I have no chance of seeing?
It does'nt provide a link or instructions on how to write to encourage my local theatre to play it.
As a fan, if they showed it anywhere near here, I'd go see it.
Unless I missed something (which I'll admit is possible.. the site is slow due to
The Internet is generally stupid
...that's actually one of the most on-topic posts so far...
(For those not familiar with TMBG, I'm not being sarcastic.)
Seeing as my original post got modded down as off-topic, despite having a legitimate question (my fault I know, I should have just asked the question and forgotten about the trolling joke), I'll ask it again:
Where can I see this film? Is it going to be sold on DVD? Is it going to be at every major film festival in the country? Has it been available on Gnutella since last January?
The point of a review is to let people know whether or not they would want to watch it. It would be handy to know exactly how we can watch it.
What a crappy-assed review. Give me Katz instead. At least there's something to laugh at.
Forget about the movie...This reviewer's AMAZING!! I mean, he's 100000000^23 times better than Katz!! I hope we have a replacement on our hands.
"You know you don't act like a scientist, you're more like a game show host." Dana Barret
I used to really like TMBG, and I still do but just not as much in a daily-quoting, obsessive kind of way.
John F. had a really great idea back in the 90's to send out ten CD EP's a year (by new artists and old) for $42, and he even threw in a cool extra now and then. BUT: like all mail-order, problems happen, only some of which I can blame on him and the lady who ran the operation with him. One year I didn't get the extra goodie, which was a CD by TMBG, and I let her know that it hadn't arrived. I don't know if she thought I was trying to scam an extra copy out of them or something but they wouldn't send a replacement. I signed up for the next year anyway, but at the end of that year when I tried to re-up no luck even though I left them messages several times. Hello CD-of-the-Month still existed for another few years but I guess they didn't want to sell any more to me -- and by association, I became somewhat disillusioned with TMBG's output.
Still wish I had the rest of the Hello CDs, though.
hey.
i've got a mirror going:
mirror
the movies are here:
movies
have fun.
-- john
I don't read this site to read quick advertisements for .
Huh. When Schnack was the president of the student body at the University of Missouri-Columbia, I thought for sure he'd end up being just another corporate music whore. Probably had something to do with the the painstakingly written lyrics to REM's "The End of the World As We Know It" on his office wall, which was, even then, an approved rebellion song. Guess I was wrong. Or is TMBG also one of those bands clearly approved for acceptance by those who think they're indie and non-mainstream but aren't? Posting anonymously to prevent AJ from spilling *my* student history.
http://www.seattlefilm.com/
What's next, a review of the Republican National Convention? Article just not relevant...Article JUST NOT RELEVANT!
TMBG does a fair number of covers (sometimes without people realizing they are covers)... in fact Flansberg once introduced 'Why does the sun shine' with, "Here is another song we didn't write; people seem to like that"... anyways, point being, the song 'New York City' which is featured in both the trailers was originally written and performed by a Vancouver all female trio called Cub, and, as much as I love TMBG to death, Cub's version is better. ;)
.... yeah.
P.S. Cub toured a bit with TMBG on the Factory Showroom tour... and Cub had (at the time) 2 members named Lisa... so I imagine the introductions went something like, "John this is Lisa. Lisa, John. John this is Lisa. Lisa, John. John this is Lisa. Lisa, John. John this is Lisa. Lisa, John."
It was actually pretty cool. Those guys are total geeks, in every sense of the word. The only catch with the movie is the ending scene, those of you who have seen it know what I'm talking about. The director should have cut it.
Some guy commented about Austin's SXSW being "elitist". I'm not sure what he's talking about, there were a few empty seats for the premiere! Anybody could have gone for 8 bucks.
If you're a big fan, go see the movie!
Tips and Tricks for Mozilla
"The Statue Got Me High", oh wait I did that to myself =\
Hmm... Here's a good game! Name (in your opinion) the three songs that contrast most strongly.
My vote goes to:
Stomp Box
Lie Still, Little Bottle
We Want a Rock
If Triangle Man and Your Racist Friend had a fight, would Triangle win?
:10 of Hearing Aid?
Or, can you build a little Birdhouse In Your Soul with Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love?
And shouldn't this film be about a Road Movie To Berlin?
I feel like I've learned a lot from TMBG: Pet Rocks are cool, accordian music can be really groovy, and you can be a total nerd and still be a rockin' musician.
On a serious note, does anyone know what the backmasking is in the first
a value added movie? cripes, where on this planet do I escape marketers?
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
They could always sleep their way to the top, but I'll bet their alarm clocks always wake them right up...
There are exactly 42,935,718 letter sized sheets in a square mile.
You really should give credit to Diablo, as your .sig is a quote directly from him. Just a thought. :)