Month: September 2013

“Now this is keg racing!”

Here’s another Friday distraction for you: the film documentary version of Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock, narrated by none other than Orson Welles. This is ’70s film documentary at its most ’70s documentary-est, complete with dystopian themes, weird jump-cuts, a soundtrack that’s equal parts jazz-funk and creepy atonal music, and a celebrity narrator whose best days are clearly behind him. Welles had hit the Michael Caine “I’ll act in anything” point, from that regrettable shilling for terrible wine to that infamous recording session for a frozen peas ad:

…which was later parodied — and with the swearing excised — to a likely unaware audience in Animaniacs:

Here’s Welles at the intro of the film:

In the course of my work, which takes me to just about every corner of the globe, I see many aspects of a phenomenon which I’m just beginning to understand. Our modern technologies have achieved a degree of sophistication beyond our wildest dreams. But this technology has exacted a pretty heavy price. We live in an age of anxiety, a time of stress, and with all our sophistication we all are in fact the victims of our own technological strength! We are the victims of shock…of FUTURE shock!

And here’s the film — 49 minutes of cheese-tastic techno-dystopia, through 1970s eyes. Enjoy!

It doesn’t get any more 1978 than this clip of Boney M. performing Rasputin on the Italian TV show La Sberla. It’s the disco hit that’s also a sensationalized history lesson!

It’ll give the kid an appreciation for Ghostbusters II.

Click the image to read the full comic.

I enjoyed this story from the Avengers comic featuring Wolverine and Ms. Marvel in an amusing conversation during some downtime, and if you’re into comics, you might too.

Click the excerpt above to see the full comic.

The latest installment of Virus Comix, A Photo of Yourself from the Future, may get overly wordy at points and telegraph its ending, but it’s still a sweet little sci-fi tale. Read it when you’ve got a few minutes to spare.

Back in the 1980s, the Montreal-based indie record label OG Music was driving the Ontario/Quebec punk scene by releasing records from notable (if underappreciated) acts such as Deja Voodoo, Jerry Jerry and the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra, The Gruesomes…

…The Asexuals, U.I.C., The Ripcordz, and these guys, The Supreme Bagg Team:

I loved this video when I saw it in the really early ’90s, and I’m glad to see someone posted it to YouTube. It’s a fun, raucous cover of Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot’s classic, If You Could Read My Mind…

…and it’s chock-full of pop culture bits that might be recognizable if you’re a Canadian of a certain age. Enjoy the tunes, as well as these stills from the video, featuring some Canadiana that’s no longer with us…