Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Thank You

To everyone who has ever supported this podcast :)

You can email me at jaywontdart@gmail.com , check out my current podcast at http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/

Best wishes to you,

Jordan Wyatt

Episode 49 This Is It (Final Episode)

Episode 49, This Is It (Final Episode)

To start with , here are my favourite vegetarian or vegan related clips from the No Agenda Podcast with John C Dvorak and Adam Curry.



Dvorak made a few mistakes with my message, I do NOT own NZ Vegan Podcast, I just asked for it to be mentioned, and Im not the only vegan who listens to No Agenda, I've met a few now.

Welcome to Episode 49 of Jay Wont dart's podcast. This Is It, both the Michael Jackson movie, and my final episode.

Thank you to everyone who has ever listened to my podcast. I'm no longer going to update this, Im focusing on my Animal Rights show, Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals. You can find that at coexisting with nonhuman animals . blogspot.com. I'd love to hear from anyone who has listened to this podcast, my email is jaywontdart @gmail.com.

If you would like to remove this podcast from your iTunes podcast section, you can just select it and hit delete. Or, if you'd like to keep the episodes for some reason, to make fun of me when I run for Prime Minister of New Zealand, you can select all the episodes, and "convert ID3 tags". That removes the bit that says "this is a podcast, keep it separate from normal music files". Right click on all the selected episodes and you will see "convert ID3 tags". Select "1.0" ok that. When you do that, you will lose the artwork for the episodes, you could always copy the picture from one of the episodes and then paste it back for all tracks after deleting the tags. You can then drag the tracks out of iTunes to your desktop, and then back to iTunes, they should just show up as usual music, not in the podcast section any more. This way, you dont have a dead podcast in your podcast section, looking for updates that will never come. I have little space left on screen, even with a 23 inch screen, because I have so many podcast subscriptions, so I remove any that are not updated and save the files the way I just described.

A few weeks back, I went to the movies. It was the first time in years, Probably the last movie I had went to would have been Lord Of The Rings, Return Of The King. I didnt think much of the movie theatre, in fact, it SUCKED! I had to wait for the ticketing clerk to get off the telephone, while another one sat there doing NOTHING at a closed till. After a minute or two of awkward standing and looking around at movie posters, I finally got to pay. The manager was further along, on another telephone, yakking it up about how great his theatre is. Something about digital projection equipment. Yet, our local theatre cannot afford to get 3D projectors. 3D movies are cited to be the new breakthrough in reversing movie theatre losses, because at home, you just cant get 3D, its going to be THE reason to go to a theatre. And, we just wont have it, because it costs so much. So, Invercargills local movie theatre is pretty much screwed. Like I said, it had been YEARS since I had last gone, and I really dont see myself EVER going to a movie theatre again. I normally just wait until things are out on DVD, and buy them, although I have friends who download movies from bit torrent, and its pretty impressive what you can get for FREE, BEFORE the movie is even OUT in THEATRES, let alone waiting months for the dvd version. I dont like stealing movies though, so I dont do it, although I think Digital Distribution is the way to go. I buy all my music through iTunes, and hope one day I'll be able to get movies the same way. I imagine someday you will be able to just get new movies on your computer, by download, at the same time they are released in theatres, because all the theatres will be long gone.

Before I tell you about what I thought of This Is It, I'd also like to mention, I wanted to own it on DVD straight after the movie ended, I wanted to be able to rewind certain bits and watch them again and again. Turns out, Sony was willing to have the DVD and Blu Ray versions out BEFORE christmas, makes sense right? So then everyone would be buying copies for christmas, thats the best time of year for sales, "for christs sake". But, oh, the movie theatres bitched and moaned, "oooh, you cant do that to us", and so Sony had to postpone the home release until almost FEBRUARY. Ok, so I could have this dvd in my hands in a few weeks, OR, I could wait MONTHS. Guess what I have to do! All because I want to legally buy the damn thing, I could have just grabbed a pirated copy of the movie from online, probably before it was even showing in theatres. The people who play by the rules always get screwed over.

So, it seems to be a long wait until I can own This Is It. Im not happy about it.

So, what did I think about This Is It? Heres the trailer.



As you probably know, This Is It were a series of concerts that were cancelled after Michael Jackson died, a very short time before the concerts were to begin. This Is It, the movie thats been released, is from footage filmed privately for Michael himself, it was never meant to be seen by the public. Some fans have thought it shouldnt be released, since its practice footage, and not finished. Im personally glad I got to see it.

Lots of interesting set designs were used, and actual computer graphics for the concerts are shown during the movie. One has a spider scurrying about, and then an actual giant spider comes out on stage, with its legs stomping about, and it opens up to reveal Michael inside.

Theres been all kinds of rumours about the movie too, some of them bizarre. I mean, the whole thing is a cash grab by the producers, trying to get as much money as possible of course, and they've succeeded doing that. The rumoured price for the raw concert footage was 60 million us dollars, and to date, the movie has taken in over 200 million dollars. It will probably do something similar to that again in merchandise and sales of the home media versions.

Then, rumours that body doubles were used, that not all of the dancing is done by the actual Michael Jackson, its someone who looks just like him doing it, because Michael was too sick to dance. Who knows if thats true or not. Even Joe Jackson, Michaels Father has said that its "mostly body doubles". I dont know, Joe Jackson says all kinds of things. Sony released a statement denying rumors that the film had rehearsal footage of Jackson body doubles. "This story is pure garbage and there are no body doubles. [...] Audiences will begin to see the film tomorrow [October 28, 2009] and every time they see The King of Pop they will know that every frame is unquestionably Michael [Jackson] as he rehearses and prepares for the London concerts that were to have begun this past summer." I dont know, thats a bit mean, to say "oh, the true fans will recognise its Michael", its a bit like the story of the Emperors New Clothes, we all want to believe its Michael Jackson, and so will just assume it is him. From what I saw, it seemed like him, sure.

Then, there are rumours of the actual singing too. For most of the movie, you dont hear Michael singing at full strength, he doesnt sing properly, apparently to save his voice for the concerts, this was just practise remember. So, he skips huge portions of songs, and what he does sing tends to be rather quietly, and he sounds out of breath, like hes forgotten parts, or is generally stressed. There were rumours that Michael was close to death as he performed, and that he could never have actually fulfilled all the concert dates. These rumours say they people around him were giving him drugs to keep him going, never caring about his health, and that they just needed him to perform. At least parts of the sound have been confirmed as being the original master recordings, with Sony confirming that some of the practise recordings were just not strong enough. Again, I dont know, maybe we will never know the truth.

From what I saw from the movie, Michael looked rather freaky, every time you see him, he looks like a different person, his whole face again looks different from just a few years ago. Now he looked "smaller" and even thinner, with large cheeks but nothing else to his face. He wears sunglasses for most of the movie, and some rather crazy looking suits. I didnt like the costumes very much, they are just bizarre.

I'll read from some reviews of This Is It.

"More important, however, is that we rarely witness Jackson giving 100%: He frequently comments that he is saving his voice and body for the actual performances. Jackson certainly can’t be faulted for this, but it’s questionable whether he would really want his fans to see him thus. Don’t get me wrong: 60% of Michael Jackson is still a pretty good thing [...] [Jackson] the noted perfectionist, at work, correcting others’ dance moves without missing a beat himself and giving notes, sometimes revelatory and other times inscrutable, to his music director and others"
—Marjorie Baumgarten of Austin Chronicle[
"We see Jackson as a perfectionist, a generous boss, a tough taskmaster and a playful child. Off guard and probably unaware that it would ever be seen by the public, we find Jackson pushing his band and production team to the limit with demands to "let it sizzle" and "make the music simmer". Obsessive Jacko fans may be shocked by his Diva-ish behaviour as he complains about ear-pieces, but it's heartening to finally view the late singer as a rounded human with regular failings and imperfections. Similarly a scene featuring Jackson screaming "weeeee!" with childish glee as he moves around the stage on a giant cherry-picker, will surely bring a smile to even the most cynical viewer"
—Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy[

I guess you just have to go and see the movie for yourself, if its still available where you are, if not, we have to wait until its released for home media. Im not enjoying this wait, theres so many scenes I want to watch again, to see if I can spot any signs of body doubles, or other unusual things.

Overall, Im really glad I saw This Is It, although it is rather weird to watch. You know Michael is dead, it briefly mentions that at the very start, before going through the process of auditions for the supporting cast. Who knows if Michael Jackson had the strength left to do all those live performances. Honestly, the majority of the movie has him "practise singing", not singing properly at full strength. It comes across as if hes forgetful or tired, although it could really be that he was just doing that because it is a practise, and he needed his strength for the real performances.

I really liked a lot of things about the movie, I hope you can see it.

Im going to end with the main song of the movie, that was released with the movie. This Is It was recorded many years ago, and just recently worked into a full song. Its always exciting to find "unreleased" songs of your favourite artist, especially after they have died, although the studios ALWAYS let them trickle out, to maximise their profits. Its going to be years before all Michaels best songs have been released, if they ever are.

Thank you for listening. Its been fun doing these podcasts. Im going to continue doing my animal rights podcast, Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals. You can find that a coexisting with nonhuman animals . blogspot.com I'd love it if you would listen to that.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it. I really, really would.

For the last time ever on this podcast,

Have a super happy day, bye.




Sources
=======

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson%27s_This_Is_It

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Episode 48 Always Blow On The Pie!

Episode 48 Always Blow On The Pie!


thats right girls, dont work hard at school, you're just going to end up at home cooking and cleaning for your husband! That was a 1960's commercial for Suzy Homemaker, a bunch of fake household items, ovens, blenders, irons etc. How could these have been the good old days, when girls were molded into housewives! I'd much rather todays commercials, for videogames where you kill prostitutes!

Anyway, welcome to episode 48 of Jay Wont dart's podcast, Always blow on the pie!

Im having fun having two podcasts, although Im not sure how often each will get updated, perhaps I'll get stuck in one or the other for a few episodes in a row.

This episode, a New Zealand pop culture moment thats exploded online. Always Blow On The Pie!

It came from the New Zealand police show called Police ten 7



In the famous clip, a police officer finds a suspicious looking man, and gives him some rather odd, rather New Zealand advice. Heres the full version of the clip.


Safer Communities together is a New Zealand police slogan.

I love it, so far the most popular youtube clip has had about 100,000 views, thats a lot for a New Zealand clip. Mr Vintage, a New Zealand online t shirt store has made a "Always Blow on the pie" t shirt. Remix songs have been made, and even mainstream media have covered the event.

Once more, heres the main part of the clip,



And here are some of the best remixes, taken from youtube. I've linked to these in the shownotes which you can see on my blog or in the lyrics section of this episode.

First, Blow on the Pie, the musical,


and my favourite of the remixes, the rap version.


I love the rap version best.

I just felt like I had to cover Always Blow on the Pie, its sure to become part of New Zealands pop culture alongside heavyweight boxer David Tua saying "o for oresome" on a gameshow



The policeman in the clip was found, and recently on tv, heres a clip from the Breakfast show.



Thank you for listening.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

Have a super happy day, bye.





sources
========
intro Suzy Homemaker video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rAiii4LA3k

longer version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2oVTULyWZk

the musical
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvs8PNbGVdg

the rap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F7Gucl_FqI

safer communities remix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8PiVPRjujE

Mr Vintage T
http://www.mrvintage.co.nz/shop/Gender/View+All+Mens/SAFER+COMMUNITIES+MENS+T-SHIRT.html

breakfast show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cRkrF5dGyQ


O for awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaIZF8uUTtk

Friday, October 16, 2009

Episode 47 My New Animal Rights Podcast

Episode 47 My New Animal Rights Podcast



Welcome to an extra short episode of Jay Wont dart's podcast.

My intro was my latest mention on No Agenda, although Dvorak got my podcast wrong, I DO NOT own the NZ Vegan podcast :) I do enjoy telling people to search for "NZ Vegan" when they look for my podcast on iTunes, because searching for "NZ Vegan" shows up all the New Zealand Animal Rights podcasts. I almost uniformly love each and every one of the results.

I just wanted to let everyone know, I've decided to do all future animal rights, and Vegan related episodes under a separate designation. This will make it easier to just listen to the episodes you are actually interested in, if you want to only hear me talk about NZ news or movies, or if you want to only hear vegan topics. Or, ideally you could subscribe to both!

The name of my new podcast, chosen by my friend Sam Tucker, is Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals. I asked for help on Veganzchat, an email group, with a starting point of " living with animals ", asking for it to be improved upon. Sam kindly came up with Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals. I like it very much, although it is a long name. You can find that blog at Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals.blogspot.com. I'm not sure how often I'll update each podcast, just when I feel like it most likely.

To make up for this being a short episode, Im going to include some of my favourite outro clips. I have the autotuned Glorious Dawn, using clips of Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer, an american church which has banned Pepsi, and Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, on the iPhone before it were released.

Just to make it clear, you can find Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals on iTunes, by searching for it by name, although it shows up just fine if you search for " jay wont dart ", both my podcasts will show. You can also find the blog at coexisting with nonhuman animals . blogspot.com.

Thank you for listening.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

I hope you check out Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals.

Have a super happy day, bye.




Sunday, October 11, 2009

My new podcast, Coexisting with nonhuman animals

Im splitting my podcast into two, Jay Wont dart's will be for general topics, and all future vegan/animal rights episodes will be under the new "Coexisting with nonhuman animals" banner :)

This makes it easier for you to listen to just the topics you are interested in.

the blog is up at Coexisting with nonhuman animals , or the introduction episode is up on iTunes, if you search for " NZ Vegan " you will see both podcasts, Jay Wont dart's and Coexisting with nonhuman animals :)

Expect the first episode soon :)

Friday, September 25, 2009

Episode 46 Stand By Me, Contact, American Beauty

Episode 46

Stand By Me, Contact, American Beauty



Hi, welcome to episode 46 of Jay Wont darts podcast. My intro was from episode 132 of No Agenda.

This episode, I'll talk about three of my favourite movies. Stand by Me, a coming of age flick, Contact, starring Jodie Foster and centred around aliens, and American Beauty, which is like a grown up Ferris Buellers Day Off.

First, Stand By Me.

Heres the trailer,



Stand By Me is a movie a lot of people will have seen before, and forgotten about. Its truly a classic. The movie, based on a Steven King book, came out in 1986. It has a lot of fairly well known scenes, the young boys walking along train tracks for most of the movie is quite memorable.

I'll read from the Wikipedia summary.


The film is narrated by an adult Gordie LaChance, known as "The Writer" (Richard Dreyfuss), writing the memoir about his youth. Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon, over Labor Day weekend in September 1959, Gordie (Wil Wheaton), and his friends Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) and Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) learn from their friend Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) that the dead body of a boy named Ray Brower, who was struck by a train while picking blueberries in the woods, has not been found. While under his porch looking for his buried jar of pennies, Vern overheard his older brother talking about finding the body while in the woods with a friend. The boys then embark upon a two-day journey across the woodlands near Castle Rock to see and find the body in hopes that the discovery will make them all famous.
Each boy has a physical and/or emotional burden. Gordie is a quiet, bookish boy with a penchant for telling stories and writing, rejected by his father following the death of his football-star older brother Denny (John Cusack) in a Jeep accident. Chris is from a family of criminals and alcoholics and, despite his intelligence and desire to break the generational curse, he is usually stereotyped accordingly. Teddy is an eccentric and physically deformed after his mentally-unstable father (whom Teddy sees as a war hero who "stormed the beach at Normandy") held his ear to a stove and nearly burned it off, thus forcing him to wear a hearing aid. Vern, overweight and timid, is easily scared, and thus often picked on.
Through the boys' misadventures and conversations, the viewer learns about each character's personality. Each of the boys, for varying reasons, lives in the shadow of their fathers and older brothers. Gordie's talent for storytelling pegs him as the most likely of the four to have a promising future.

Heres a clip of Gordie telling a story.



Stand By Me is a great movie, its been mentioned in pop culture a few times, such as the scenes of the adult writer reminiscing about his childhood friends. By the end of the movie, we hear him mention how he moved away from his friends, and the terrible fates that awaited each of them. Its terribly sad, to hear how they all end up.

The next movie is Contact, about finding a radio signal from outer space. Contact came out in 1997. Jodie Foster's character has been into radio all her life, and now she works with radio telescopes listening to signals from space. Eventually, she and her team manage to decode one such signal, and find out it has information inside, instructing them to build a machine.

Here is the trailer for contact.



I forget the total cost of the machines, but its actually quite low by todays standards, less than the US auto bail outs for example. A machine, or two, to teleport us through space, to meet aliens, and they cost less than keeping American cars around.

This is unrelated to the cost of the machine, but here is a clip of Jodie Foster asking for more funding.



Contact has a really interesting character, a ultra rich man near the end of his life, he shows up in a lot of interesting scenes, such as one as he floats inside a space station to prolong his life. Near the very end of the movie, as a question about him is brought up, we see his fellow space station friends put him in a body bag.

An interesting thing about Contact, the signal, and aliens, are from Vega, a star. When you mention this star , people from Vega are called "vay-guns". So, in the movie there are some GREAT clips to be made, as it sounds like they are saying Vegans! Observe.



Arnt they great?

The last movie is American Beauty. I love this movie, it features Kevin Spacey as the main character. American Beauty came out in 1999.

Reading from Wikipedia,
Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a middle-aged office worker who has a midlife crisis after becoming infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend.

After watching a high school basketball game at which Jane is a cheerleader, Lester develops an infatuation with Jane's sexually precocious friend and classmate, Angela . His fantasies entail a sexually aggressive Angela among red rose petals. Lester is informed he is to be laid off, but blackmails his boss, quits his job and takes up low-pressure employment at a fast food chain. He buys his dream car, starts lifting weights and begins running to "look good naked"—to impress Angela, whom he overheard telling Jane that she would find him sexually attractive if he had muscle. He also takes up smoking cannabis, which he buys from Ricky. Lester continues to fantasize about Angela and flirts with her whenever she visits Jane. The pair's friendship wanes and Jane becomes romantically involved with Ricky; the lovers bond over Ricky's camcorder footage of what he considers the most beautiful imagery he has filmed: a plastic bag blowing in the wind

Its a very odd movie, but definitely one of my favourite movies of all time. Heres the trailer for American Beauty.



here are some other clips, the main character Lester explaining his job



That job scene actually is reminding me of Fight Club, American Beauty is like Ferris Beuller meets Fight Club, but without the violence. Its emotional, but not a chick flick.

a tense dinner scene



and the most beautiful thing Ricky has ever filmed, a plastic bag





I highly recommend all three of these movies, Stand By Me, Contact, and American Beauty.

Thank you for listening. My outro is the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, on the Letterman show.



You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

Have a super happy day, bye.







sources
=======

stand by me

lardass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG2gjL-KUqw


contact

trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF3IZzXZ6Ig

funding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sds7hTlaNaM


american beauty

most beautiful thing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yk7b2uo0u8

my job
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqJ8zxV7Cjw

dinner scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRfZQN9cMfo