Clinton and Cruise: together at last

A cracking piece of video editing that brings together some recent video highlights from Hillary Clinton and Tom Cruise …

… you get the feeling that they kinda deserve each other.

Animal Magic

Johnny Morris proved beyond reasonable doubt that putting words into animals’ mouths was both big and clever. Now, a new generation steps up to the plate.

Exploding Tax in London Churches!

… and other calm and reflective headlines are available to you thanks to the London Evening Standard headline generator, which I guess may remind some of you of how the real media has just become more and more like The Day Today – “these are the headlines, God how I wish they weren’t – this is the news!”

Why not leave the headline you generate, in the comments …

Daft Hands

One of the things about the YouTube age is that, if a song is much-loved, fans can make a video for it that becomes more memorable and iconic than the official video. Here, with more then 13 million YouTube hits, is a fan video for Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”:

Compare and contrast with the official video for the song from the film Interstella 5555. Other tributes deserving a mention: Daft Bodies and an A Cappella cover of the song.

Self-Reference in “Self-Reference in `Self-Reference in . . .’ ”

Humour of the most intellectual kind: an English essay that reviews itself, inspired by the work of Douglas Hofstadter and David Moser.

Don’t (spoof trailer)

Created by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg (of Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame), this is one of the spoof trailers created to accompany the very wonderful film Planet Terror (and the much less wonderful Death Proof). Like the films, it pays loving tribute to the grindhouse era of horror/exploitation films. So far there is no prospect of it being released on DVD. Boo.

If you like this (and you want a taste of the Planet Terror DVD), check out the Machete trailer by Robert Rodriguez. The spoof trailer is such a hit, IMDB reports it’s being made into a film.

Dr Quantum

There is a great series of animations on YouTube, just do a search for Dr Quantum and enjoy.

• Flatland
• Double Slit Experiment
• Entanglement

The UKs Top Ten fish ‘n’ chip shops

So useful! Via we-make-money-not-art.

Edited to add: Number 4, Colman’s in South Shields, is quite fantastic, but to be honest, most of the fish and chip shops in South Shields are marvellous.

Martin Poulter talks about Tom Cruise

Well, my brief appearance on Sky News this week (talking about Tom Cruise’s Scientology rant) has already made it to YouTube, thanks to the work of JAFAW and Arnie Lerma. To my amazement, it’s getting some good responses (“Dr. Martin Poulter truly rawks!!” “This one will cause CoS(UK) to go ballistic.” “PUNDITASTIC!”) as well as constructive criticism (yes, I do need to be more fluent and more assertive). More than 3,300 views in two days!

Meanwhile, the public relations disaster for Tom Cruise continues. Not only is the first video being parodied to Hell and back, but much more even scarier footage from the same event has been released. Slate magazine picks out some choice moments and explicitly compares it to Cold War propaganda. Gawker has some video excerpts: look at the final one where Cruise, wearing his new Freedom Medal of Valor, calls on the assembled Scientologists to “clean this place up”. “This place” refers to Planet Earth and along with war, crime and illness, they want it “clean” of any resistance to Scientology.

Cruise shows his crazy side

It’s been taken off YouTube due to complaints from the Church of Scientology, but Gawker is hosting The Tom Cruise Indoctrination Video. In what some are calling “Crazy-gate”, Cruise says he only wants to read about opponents of Scientology “in the History books”, talks about “getting ethics in” on himself and says that in an emergency, it’s only the scientologists (not the paramedics, firefighters or police) who can help. The last 40 seconds of the video are the most jaw-dropping. The Gawker reader comments include some classics (“I hope he gets help for his repressed ego”). Reminds me that my Scientology criticism site is due an update.