#that turbo dogs sketch just keeps giving

[sketchupnfries]

t u r b o d o g s

Cal needs to learn how to cook oh my gosh

[biolizardboils]

its been 10 days since the movieversary but my CU hyperfixation's still going so heres another one of those Scattered Thoughts posts (minor movie spoilers!)

So i updated the playlist at treehouseblogsinc this week! Idek if Wikplayer still works for most people, but this streak’s five years long and i aint quittin yet! (Usually i just replace song links when they break, but this time i removed a song too cus the guy it references has been Bitch lately)

Speaking of, i did my semi-annual reread of the whole blog too and... man :’’’) Its still mind-blowing how many people played along (and got pissed at Melvin when he took over lmaooo). All the silly, sweet, and angry asks i got there still warm my heart to this day

You know what else i still do to this day? Draw things Pilkey-style! Sometimes i try to follow a rigid anatomy when i draw and feel stuck when it doesnt look right. When that happens, i step back and make a quick Pilk-ish sketch as a reminder to keep things loose. Works every time :)

Something i still love about the movie and the months leading up to it is how much of it felt like a grand... I dont wanna say joke, cus that kinda implies they didnt care when its obvious they truly did. Lets go with prank — it all felt like a grand prank! Like the decisions they made worked in the end, but were also super funny to read and hear about. Like oh my god, they rented Abbey Road Studios to record a choir playing kazoos and singing the word “underpants!” They got the biggest up-and-coming horror director to voice white-ass Melvin Sneedly. (Tho i guess now it can be argued that he’s white-passing in movie!verse, so thats cool)

My fave example of this is how they got Lil Yachty for the album. On one hand, whatever chunk of the limited budget they spent to get him probably could’ve been put to better use, like actually animating the Turbo Toilet fight or something? (While moving the Flip-O-Rama to another scene of course.) On the other hand, its hilarious that they got him to rap the word “cool” 15 times to a cover of Oh Yeah, and then didnt even put it in the movie. Its like George and Harold themselves wrote the stupidest lyrics possible just to see if he’d agree to them, and he did?? Thats comedy gold???

Why didnt i bookmark all the production stuff posted to Instagram. There was so much cool stuff i wanna see again but the search function there is still garbage and uuuughh

So i dont remember if it was production art or fanart but theres this one Instagram post i saw once thats lived in my head ever since. it looked like the cover of Action Comics #1, but with Captain carrying a school bus. If by some miracle somebody has it saved, please send it to me ill be forever in your debt

Im still scared of getting what’s coming to me when the Dog Man movie drops, but now im also wondering if theyll still have George and Harold as a framing device. Ngl i havent caught up with the new books in a hot minute, but ive heard that the boys have stopped appearing in them? if that’s true, that’s Dav’s choice and i have to respect that. ....but also i really wanna see them in CG again. pretty please dreamworks, i miss my sons so much

It mustve been a while since i last watched the movie, cus when i did on the 2nd, the Origin Issue sequence like... broke me all over again. i wrote about why its so great once for a thing that never got made actually, lemme dig that up and paste it in here

The score begins with chiptune and kazoos, two common motifs for childhood whimsy, and already a great fit for this sequence’s simple, handdrawn look. 

But it doesn’t stop there! It goes from what sounds like just two or three people playing kazoos… to a whole chorus of them… which gives way to a full-fledged orchestra. It’s as dramatic a transition as… oh, say, a one-man children’s book to an animated movie by one of the top studios in the industry.

And in turn, as the comic continues, we’re brought closer and closer to the panels until the white gutter between them vanishes, and they engulf the screen. The medium through which this story’s being told has faded from awareness; all that exists now is the story itself. 

But just as suddenly, we’re brought back to our true surroundings. The orchestral music ends, the chiptune returns for one last gentle sting, and we remember this epic tale’s humble origins: a comic book, written and drawn by two 4th graders. *sniff*

Another Score thing i love: you know how Captain is one big Superman parody? I think Shapiro mightve had that in mind when he composed his theme tune, because it starts with a triumphant first three notes (the “Underpaaaaants” part) — just like some of Superman’s! I dont know the right musical terms but cmon, theres a pattern there! And its so touching that they found Captain worthy of a song of that caliber!! Like yes, he IS a true superhero!! heres the epic theme song to prove it!!

Oh wow okay. So to dig up that Writing Thing, i had to open some folders i havent touched in years. And there were outlines for 10 different fanfics in there. I remember not really meaning to finish them ever, just writing them down cus the ideas wouldnt leave me alone. Hell i still dont have time to finish them now

But. Man now i feel bad for never doing anything with them. I have half a mind to post the outlines at least?? Cus someone out there might get a kick out of them?? You know what, if this hyperfixation doesnt peter out in another few days ill probably do it

Speaking of things i havent looked at in years, i listened to this song while typing all this and im tearing up now send post

[aion-rsa]

The Teleprompter Interview: Daniel Mays ‘I’d jump at an Ashes to Ashes Return’

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��He pops up absolutely everywhere doesn’t he?’ says Daniel Mays about his Code 404 co-star Stephen Graham. You could say the same of Mays. A draw on any cast list, between them in the last year alone they’ve appeared in almost 20 major titles – 1917, Good Omens, White Lines (Mays), The Irishman, The Virtues, Line of Duty, Save Me (Graham) to name just a handful.

Why Mays and Graham are in such high and regular demand is no mystery; they’re two of our best. Mays has an instant affability on screen that he’s able to turn to tragedy or comedy or both at once. Graham’s characters are often the reverse, unknowable and dangerous before he lays their vulnerabilities bare.

In sci-fi comedy Code 404, they play detectives with a tangled personal history. Mays is a DI unexpectedly brought back from the dead via some bug-ridden experimental AI tech. Graham is the trusty partner who’s been keeping his colleague’s wife (Anna Maxwell Martin) company during his absence.

Already renewed for a second run, Mays tells Den of Geek it’s the most binge-watched show on Sky in eight years. “We’re all buzzing about doing another series.” As the first is released on DVD, he talks us through his TV memories…

Which TV show inspired you to start your acting career?

Robbie Coltrane in the Jimmy McGovern drama Cracker. I find his stuff heart-breaking at times but it’s astounding social realist television. Any script written by Jimmy is nuanced and powerful. He’s one of this country’s most amazing writers.

More than anything though, it was Robbie Coltrane’s performance. I remember all the incredible performances, Robert Carlyle as the skinhead with those fantastic interrogation scenes, Christopher Eccleston… but Coltrane as this antihero, a gambler and a womaniser and a drinker, a maverick copper, he was amazing.

That and Prime Suspect.I could go further back, but in terms of when I was really getting serious about becoming an actor, those were the two that were compulsive viewing. I’ve subsequently gone on to work with Jimmy McGovern so it feels like it’s gone full circle.

Which TV character did you want to be when you were younger?

As a kid I was really into The A Team and whassisname, David Hasselhoff! Michael Knight from Knight Rider. As a kid I was obsessed with that show. I had all the action figures. That car was so cool wasn’t it? And when he did the turbo boost and jumped over everything!

In The A Team I probably wanted to be Face, but in reality, if I was to be cast as anyone now it wouldn’t be Face [laughs], it would be Murdoch wouldn’t it?

And which TV character would you like to be now?

When I was working, I didn’t really watch much telly at all but obviously that’s all changed now we’re in lockdown. Before, I hadn’t ever delved into The Sopranos, and I love that character, Tony Soprano. If I could pick one TV character I’d like to have a go at now, that’s the one.

Has any TV programme ever given you nightmares?

Oh man, I’m telling you! There was an ITV adaptation of Jekyll & Hyde with Michael Caine. I’m going back years and years, I must have been about 10 or 11. The make-up that they used in this show when he changed from Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde, the Hyde make-up was absolutely terrifying, to the point where it really affected me.

I was far too young to watch it and I even had to sleep in between my mum and dad at 10 years old, I was absolutely petrified of that character. Even in preparation for these questions, I went on YouTube and typed it in and there he was again, petrifying, even today!

When did you last laugh out loud watching TV?

The new Alan Partridge when he’s doing the talk show with Susannah Fielding, that particular sketch when he was attempting to use the toilet on the train without using his hands, when he went into that whole routine of opening the door with his knee. Anything with Alan Partridge I find absolutely hysterical.

I’m an absolute sucker for Only Fools and Horses as well. I’m such a die-hard fan of that show and whenever that pops up on UK TV or Gold, if I end up watching five minutes, I have to sit down and watch the whole episode. I’m such a lover of that relationship between David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst, I think it’s absolute gold, all of those characters, John Sullivan’s writing, it’s part of my fabric growing up. It’s probably my favourite ever TV show.

Name an iconic TV moment for your generation

The opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics was an amazing moment of television isn’t it? It started out in like a farmyard [laughs] and I remember thinking, ‘what have we got going on here? We’ve got the eyes of the world watching us…!’ But it then proceeded to be the most engaging and emotional extravaganza. In terms of Olympics opening ceremonies, nothing comes close to that, even in Beijing when you had that huge number of people. It was so brilliantly British. I don’t know why I ever doubted Danny Boyle. He hit it out of the park.

What was the last TV show you recommended to someone?

I recommended Save Me, the Lennie James show. I watched the second series of that in lockdown and the second series was even better than the first, and I absolutely adored the first series. I thought that was an absolute breath of fresh air, I think it was really amazing that Lennie had written this piece set on a sink estate and yet it felt vibrant and I loved the characters. It was just a wonderful piece of television. They’ve got to do another series. I definitely recommend that.

Read more

TV

Life on Mars Creator Wants to Bring Back Sam Tyler

By Louisa Mellor

TV

Lennie James interview: Save Me, Storm Damage, The Bill

By Louisa Mellor

Starring your Code 404 co-star Stephen Graham

Yes! He pops up absolutely everywhere doesn’t he?

Which TV show does everybody keep nagging you to watch that you haven’t yet seen?

Ozark and Succession. They’re two shows I’m yet to delve into really. They’re two on my list I’ve got to tick off, along with everything else!

Which TV show would you like to bring back from the dead?

There’s all this talk that there’s going to be a final instalment of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, which I keep hearing rumours about. From what I’ve read, it’s more based around what happens to John Simm’s character Sam Tyler. I don’t know if it’s going to be a modern-day thing but I always wanted to see Gene Hunt in the 90s. It’s difficult to make that happen because Ashes to Ashes was sewn up brilliantly. I’m sort of hesitant to say it should come back but Gene Hunt is such an iconic character and Phil Glenister was so incredible in that role.

I’ve always gone on record and said that Jim Keats – the character I played, the devil – was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done so if there’s an opportunity to play that role again, I’d jump at that. Is it egotistical of me to pick a show that I’ve been in myself?!

Which show do you wish more people would watch? If you were forced to pick another one of yours?

I did a single drama on BBC Two called Mother’s Day about the Warrington bombing. That’s a really important moment in history and it’s such a heart-felt drama. If anyone’s not seen it, that would be something I would recommend to people to watch. It’s not for the faint-hearted.

Have you ever done fancy dress as a TV character?

[Laughs] I went to an EastEnders fancy dress party dressed up as Frank Butcher! My then-girlfriend went as Pat so we were Pat and Frank. Then when I got there, there was another guy dressed up as Frank Butcher but he was gangster-Frank so he had all the bling on. We had a bit of a Frank Butcher-off.

Tell me you were the Frank Butcher with the spinning bow-tie?!

[Laughs] I didn’t go that far! Actually, scrap the Olympics opening ceremony, do the Frank Butcher bow-tie as the most iconic moment of my generation [laughs].

Which TV theme song do you know all the words to?

I know all the words to Friends and I have to say, Only Fools and Horses again, whenever that comes on I always end up singing all over it.

Which TV character would you like to beat in a fight?

What’s the TV show that The Rock does? It’s set in LA, Russell Brand’s been in it as well. I wouldn’t mind beating up the Rock, because my wife loves a bit of the Rock! So I could beat him up in a TV drama. Who wouldn’t want to beat The Rock up?!

What is the most fun you’ve had making television?

White Lines for Netflix, without a shadow of a doubt. That’s a complete no-brainer. The locations, the character I was playing, the actors I was working with and the scripts were just absolutely brilliant and bonkers. Fingers crossed we get a second series.

If you get a second series, your character Marcus has quite a different role set out for him, doesn’t he?

Yeah! He’s going to become the drug baron of the Calafat family. It’s all to play for isn’t it, especially for Marcus, the whole thing’s been left wide open for him to get into all sorts of mishaps and scrapes.

That character was probably the most enjoyable character I’ve played, him and Jim Keats. I just had such a ball, he was so funny and he had this sort of tragedy to him as well. He’s just so hapless. The thought of Marcus in Colombia or Bolivia or wherever just makes me howl even thinking about it.

And when else do you get to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dog?

That’s true! I forgot I did that scene. That’s mad isn’t it. Though I actually only punched the dog’s chest. At one point I did say ‘Shall I give the dog actual mouth-to-mouth?’ and the director Nick Hamm said ‘I think that’s too much Danny, even for this show.’

Code 404 is out on DVD & digital 6 July.

The post The Teleprompter Interview: Daniel Mays ‘I’d jump at an Ashes to Ashes Return’ appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[robertvasquez763]

Escape to Baja: Three Blissed-Out Days Touring Mexico on a Harley-Davidson

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Germans. It was always Germans. Germans on Harleys in the desert. A platoon of friendly dudes taking a break from the Fatherland to explore the arid expanses of the American Southwest on big old Yankee bikes, V-twins shimmering in the heat. To a man, they’d be swaddled in EagleRider jackets. They’d come over, rent bikes from the company, maybe take a guided tour up Route 66. Hang out with donkeys in Oatman, Arizona, and see the Grand Canyon. For them, it’s like a foot-to-the-floor autobahn run in a Porsche 911 Turbo would be to an American. But EagleRider doesn’t just run tours of the dry, empty corners of America. They’ve got guides and locations dotting the globe. So when they asked if I wanted to go for a ride down the Pacific Coast, I asked, “What about Baja?”

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I grew up on Highway 1: traveled every inch from Leggett down to Dana Point. Summer vacations in Fort Bragg, quick getaways to Bodega Bay or Santa Cruz. The yearly automotive bacchanal at Pebble Beach; PCH as a route to LAX and south to Orange County when I lived in San Pedro. I love 1, but 1 is mine any time I have a free day and the inclination to see the ocean. So we went to Mexico, somewhere I’d never been, despite having resided my entire life within a day’s drive of the border.

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Since EagleRider offers a selection of motorcycles biased heavily in favor of American iron, I went as heavy and American as I could get, choosing a Harley-Davidson Ultra Limited, a loaded version of Harley’s classic Electra Glide touring bike, 904 pounds of the Motor Company’s classic touring setup. Batwing fairing, 103-cubic-inch twin-cam pushrod V-twin with a couple of radiators discreetly tucked into the fairing lowers, side cases, and a capacious top trunk with a rack. Indian’s recent entry into the heavy-touring segment, the Roadmaster, is flashier—simultaneously more modern and more baroque—but the Hog is an institution.

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After a night at La Jolla’s Lodge at Torrey Pines, we picked up our bikes at EagleRider’s San Diego location, which doubles as an Indian dealership, and rumbled down I-5 to the border, winding through the Mexican checkpoint maze without much more than a glance from the guards. Free, we trundled south to Rosarito for coffee and pastries. EagleRider’s excitable CEO, Chris McIntyre, was bopping around, wide-eyed and thrilled, backslapping and high-fiving. We sat by a midmorning campfire on a cliff and sipped bottled water and excellent joe. I could’ve spent the rest of the day right there, staring out at the still, aquamarine expanse of the sea.

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Back on the bikes, we wound our way inland. The storms that have spent the winter pummeling California have zero regard for international borders. Therefore, the lush-seeming hills were probably about as verdant as they ever get. The pace set by the guides was reasonable, none of the other riders felt compelled to hot-dog, and I was starting to feel really comfortable with the big Harley. It doesn’t have a Honda Gold Wing’s low-speed stability or take a set in high-speed corners quite like Moto Guzzi’s off-the-wall MGX-21 bagger, but there’s a sense on the Electra Glide that you’re riding a damn motorcycle that’s impossible to discount.

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We parked the bikes in a dirt turnout and traveled by van and Jeep up a dirt road to La Estancia, a middle-of-nowhere rancho that apparently booms on the weekend. Lunch was lazy and delicious; the subsequent ride to Ensenada was a blissed-out, leisurely ramble.

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We wandered Ensenada after dinner. It was the off season; the town was quiet, the weather temperate. Kyra Sacdalan and Justin Coffey, a professional moto-adventure couple and veterans of the peninsula, showed us the starting line of the Baja 1000, then took us to the capacious Papas & Beer, which was utterly devoid of people, followed by a bar down the street where it’s claimed the margarita was invented. Hussong’s wasn’t exactly hopping, but there was enough of a crowd to keep the mariachi bands circulating. A group set up next to our table. The guitarist had a little solid-state Peavey amp with an old Metal Zone distortion pedal zip-tied to the handle. A motorcycle battery supplied the power. The bass player’s upright instrument was made of unfinished plywood. The drummer had a snare, a couple of cowbells, and a crash cymbal. McIntyre overeagerly called for Pink Floyd. I cringed a little. I felt like a gringo.

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They launched into a shockingly great rendition of “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).” A man came around with a pair of electrified metal tubes. The goal was to hold on as long as possible without saying “Uncle” as he increased the power. I tapped out quickly. We dropped our peanut shells on the floor. Creedence. Santana. The drummer was slaying; the guitarist was wailing; the bassist twirled the high holy hell out of his thunderbox. These guys, without a doubt, were the most fantastic bar band I’d ever seen. I stepped out for a cigarette and remembered that the late Brock Yates had been arrested outside Hussong’s for relieving himself against the wall back in 1983. We departed in cabs for the hotel. A lone federale watched us go.

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In the morning, we walked down to the marina and boarded a cabin cruiser to catch some fish and watch for whales. Photographer Todd Williams and EagleRider chief administrative officer Jeff Brown seemed to snag the majority of the yellowtail, the reeling in of which caused a great congregation of looky-loos each time. I gazed back toward the city from the ocean, wondering where in all that haze the Fender guitar factory was. Of all the guitars I own, a humble Ensenada-built Stratocaster is one of my favorites. It felt good to understand where it came from.

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On our return to dry land, we hopped on the bikes, paused to wolf down some phenomenal tacos, and then made for the Valle de Guadalupe, the heart of Baja’s wine industry. Our hotel stood up a two-mile dirt road that EagleRider VP of Experience Shawn Fechter described as “pretty gnarly.” I didn’t love the hefty Harley’s behavior on dirt and gravel, so I tucked in behind Kyra and followed her line through the ruts and pits, at one point power-walking the lumbering Electra Glide within what felt like inches of an inconsiderate first-gen Honda Pilot driver, goosing the throttle and feathering the clutch to keep the bike from sliding down a silty incline into the oxidized ute. McIntyre and Justin Coffey, on the other hand, came tearing down the road, the CEO standing on the floorboards of his Harley bagger, thwacking the pipes on the ragged, undulating ground while Justin used his BMW R1200GS adventure bike in the manner the Bavarians intended.

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After dinner, we gathered around an expertly constructed campfire. Fechter produced a cheapo nylon-string guitar. He kept handing me the thing. I’d noodle on it while folks talked. I quietly played the Minutemen’s “Corona” to myself, because if you’re a punker of a certain age in Mexico and somebody gives you a guitar, you’re honor bound to play “Corona,” D. Boon’s poignant sketch of honky guilt on a Baja beach. I handed the guitar back to Fechter. He played “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and a sweet little original about a video-store clerk he once knew who appeared to subsist entirely on chicharrón. He passed the guitar to another musically inclined writer and then back to me. I was at a loss. I knew nobody at a campfire wanted to hear “In a Free Land” or “Clash City Rockers.” Idea! I whanged the two-chord D-E riff and started singing, “Generals gathered in their masses . . . ”

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Everybody joined in, “Just like witches at black masses…”

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When in doubt, play Sabbath. A couple who’d joined our party were so inexplicably enthralled by the haphazard performance that the man called me weird and, in the next breath, suggested that he’d considered surrendering his lady friend to me for the night. Bemused, tired, and fresh out of songs, I retired to bed alone, lungs full of wood and tobacco smoke. As I drifted off, it occurred to me that I’d forgotten to play “N.I.B.”

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Goose Deuce and the Dragon Lady: A Journey to the U-2 Crash Site

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Escape From Baja: Mexican Torture Test of Audi 5000S, Datsun Maxima, Dodge 600ES, Pontiac 6000STE, Saab 900 Turbo, Toyota Cressida, VW Quantum, Volvo 760GLE

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Sidecar Racing at the Isle of Man TT Is Insane (and Insanely Cool)

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The next morning took us to over the increasingly dry hills to Tecate and the U.S. border. There’s something claustrophobic and hard about Tecate; I didn’t care for it as much as Rosarito, Ensenada, or the quiet rolling of the Valle de Guadalupe. But the man at the ice-cream store was friendly, and his cool treats were welcome. At the border, Customs and Border Protection treated us suspiciously; par for the course. Welcome back to America. I turned to Coffey and asked, “Justin, why do I feel less free now that we’re back home?”

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“Because you are.”

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The night before, the man who’d contemplated offering me his companion—he was a stockbroker type visiting the Valle for the weekend—called Baja “the land of personal responsibility,” noting that the steps are often uneven. That you tread at your own risk. EagleRider’s guides make all of that a lot easier for Baja novices. And if the tour is all-inclusive and tightly scheduled, it also takes you to spots you’d struggle to find on your own with an entire free month on your hands. As somebody who prefers riding solo and finding his own way, I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed the experience. In fact, I had a hard time wiping a smile off my face during the entirety of my time in Mexico. Those desert-traversing Germans? They’re clearly on to something.

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