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"The Chappelle Theory"
I love Chappelle’s Show and I also love a good conspiracy theory, so I couldn’t help but enjoy reading The Chappelle Theory.
Its anonymous author claims to be a retired PR executive who claims to
have many “contacts closely related to the individuals involved”,
allowing him or her to “to fairly accurately recount the events” in
Chappelle’s strange fall from grace.
This excerpt provides a good introduction to the rest of the site:
Dave was haunted by a secret. One that only he was aware of, and one
he couldn’t share with anyone, lest his comedy empire crumble.
He
knew that at the same time he was signing his record-setting deal,
there was a secret cabal of powerful African-American leaders from the
business, political, and entertainment industries working together to
ensure that the third season of Chappelle’s Show would never happen.
At one time or another, each member of this loosely knit, informal group had played a key role in Chappelle’s rise to stardom.
They
had been instrumental in securing movie and television roles, offering
counsel, and simply aiding Chappelle financially when his stand up work
couldn’t pay the bills during his lean early years.
Over the last
two years, they had watched warily as Chappelle’s Show had become
Comedy Central’s premiere show, eclipsing even South Park and The Daily
Show in terms of buzz.
Whether
you think that the site is merely the raving of a consipracy nut or an
insider blowing the whistle on dark machinations within the
entertainment industry, it’s an interesting read.
In my opinion, one of the best albums of the year is one you may not have heard of: Picaresque by The Decemberists, released in May of this year. The Decemberists, if you haven’t heard of them, write some brainy-yet-catchy indie pop with a dark sense of humour, with their subject matter often set in old Europe in the age of empires. If Melville’s Ishmael (Moby Dick) or Conrad’s Marlow (Heart of Darkness) had packed MP3 players to pass the time while on their ships, they’d have included Decemberists MP3s in their sets.
I have a couple of favourite tracks on this album — the anti-war Sixteen Military Wives (the video for which is available via Bittorrent) which features some of the catchiest pop hooks this side of Ben Folds, and The Mariner’s Revenge Song, a sea chanty in which the accordion is very prominently featured. It’s a delicious tale of a man who seeks revenge on the man who seduced and then bankrupted his widowed mother. I offer this song to you as today’s Advent calendar goodie [6.0MB, MP3] and recommend that you buy the album. Enjoy!
As you can see, I’ve been busy…
…but regular posting, as well as all the back-posts to the Advent Calendar, will resume later today.
Has it already been ten years?!
Ten
years ago, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, two film students from the
University of Colorado, were commissioned to make an animated short
that would be used as a video Christmas card to be sent to various
Hollywood types. Parker and Stone used contruction paper and
stop-motion animation techniques to create the now-legendary The Spirit of Christmas [6.8MB, QuickTime – lots of swearing, and offence-a-licious] featuring the kids who’d eventually get their own show, South Park, Jesus and Santa fighting over Christmas and Brian Boitano, who saves the day.
For today’s Advent Calendar goodie, I thought I’d dip into the vault and dig up some of my favourite entries from Christmases past. They are:
- The Best Christmas Present Ever (2002): A heart-warming, if crotch-scratching tale in which our hero gets a little refresher course on the true meaning of Christmas. It’s not likely to ever be turned into a made-for-TV special, because crablice are involved.
- Merry Christmas, and I Mean It in the Nice Sense of the Phrase (2002): “Balanced minds do not see any implied Hitler overtones at Oktoberfest,
nor Hirohito/Tojo insinuations at the sushi house, and neither do they
see the Crusades in Christmas. When people say ‘Merry Christmas’, most
of them are really saying ‘Happy Holidays, and I’m celebrating them
Christmas-style. You do your thing, and I’ll do mine. Come by for drinks.'”
- What Can You Get a Wookie for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)? (2004): The only good song from a terrible Star Wars-themed Christmas album.
Perhaps you’ve already heard this little bit of trivia, but in case you haven’t, let me the one to tell you: many people in Japan associate Christmas with things that we’d expect, such as decorations and gifts, but also with things that we wouldn’t expect, such as romantic getaways to love hotels and a Kentucky Fried Chicken dinner.
Joi Ito has written that he knows the origin of the Japanese Christmas/KFC tradition: it’s all due to his friend, Shin Okawara. Shin was responsible for bringing KFC to Japan, and during its introduction, spun what I like to call “the dirty bird” or “greasy buzzard” as the sort of food eaten by rich people in America, in a manner similar to the way those old Grey Poupon ads made it seem like the mustard of the upper classes. He ran an ad campaign that showed wealthy American
families all eating KFC for their yuletide feast. The Japanese, being led to believe that “dirty bird” was an American Christmas tradition, simply adopted it.
Lest you think that I am poking fun at our Japanese friends for adopting a Christmas tradition learned from TV, I will now make a confession — we deVillas have done it as well. In an episode of the late 1970s television series Eight is Enough, the Bradford family had a tradition of drinking orange juice before opening their presents. Dad thought this was a good idea, and borrowed this tradition. Almost thirty years later, it’s still OJ first, then the presents. And it’s all Dick van Patten’s fault.
I’d love to give you a KFC-related downloadable as today’s Advent Calendar goodie, but I don’t have any. However, I’ve got the next best thing: McDonald’s-related downloadable goodies. These are ads from 1962 that feature early appearances of McDonald’s then-new mascot, Ronald McDonald, who was played by Willard Scott, long before he was a fixture on the Today show.
Ronald’s costume was a much rougher version of the Ronald we know today. Note the use of a McDonald’s cup for a nose and tray with burger, fries and shake for a hat. Also notable is the quaint 1960’s “Ronald McDonald” theme music.
Those of you who have a bit of clown phobia may not want to watch these videos — many people I know find the old Ronald much creepier than thew current one.