Fright Night!

So I have some mixed feelings about Halloween costumes, as will be detailed in my upcoming post re: costumes.

One thing I have no mixed feelings about however, is the excellence of Halloween horror films. When they're done well they scare the crap out of me. When they're not... they amuse me greatly. So, as a service to you, my oh so hapless readers, I present:

Beckstar's Top Three Craptastic Halloween Horror Flicks

3. Robo-Vampire

My pop culture genius brother introduced me to this exemplary piece of horror madness. Robocop versus Asian vampire gang? Hells yeah. Two completely different, abandoned, beyond-b horror movies hastily slapped together into a beautiful tapestry of budget special effects? Nonsensical. Hilarious. Perfection.


George Lucas, welcome to your worst nightmare.

2. The Stuff

My uncle Mike is a complete cinemaphile, and his massive collection focuses mainly on Godzilla, sci-fi, horror and b-movie. My brother and I found this gem in one of his many crates, and it blew our fucking teenage minds so hard I've barely recovered. We're talking about killer dessert product here people. Plus, it stars Danny fucking Aiello, and Vancouver washup Michael Moriarty as a character called 'Mo', who jokes about a hundred times that 'it's cause people always want mo'. So awesome I can't sum it up in one clip.


If you're plugging a product, I'd say go with overly medicated aging whore for spokesperson. They're cheap, plus so alarming you can't look away. Win - win!


Hey asshole dad! Have some more killer yogurt why don't you?

1. Halloween III - Season of the Witch

How this movie got made is truly beyond me. Although it is the third in the groundbreaking and genuinely scary Halloween/Michael Myers series, he doesn't appear at all. Instead, it features about the stupidest idea for a plot imaginable, wherein every kid in the world is convinced to buy the same three stupid-looking Halloween masks, which are triggered by a television commercial to kill them.

The theme song is inane, the movie is unbelievably budget, and the 'surprise' revelation, wherein it's tiny pieces of Stonehenge planted in the masks that cause the whole thing is so stupid you can't even handle it. It's so good that it has collected some tribute sites, including Watch the Magic Pumpkin, and the excellent Halloween Flash site. I highly recommend the 'Keltic Legend' sound clip, where a random angry guy lectures about how Halloween really began. Anything that ends with "this hills ran red with the blood of animals and children" is obviously awesome.


It's always good to stand there frozen in your best 80's attire while your child's head is leaking insects.


Yeah, watching this commercial would probably make my head explode too. Or is that just my epilepsy acting up again?

Clio Awards screening

On Wednesday (instead of watching Top Model with the crew - I know, I'm such a martyr), I went with some co-workers to see the i have an idea screening of the 2006 Clio Awards winners.

Some of the usual suspects were accounted for - the Bravia Balls ad and the Carleton Big ad both won golds.

But some surprises as well. Like the fact that some of the best work was the radio ads. The Budweiser 'Men of Real Genius' spots were awesome. There was some Canadian content - most done by Taxi. But there was a surprising amount of content coming out of Thailand, including this gold-winning insurance spot.


Short. Impactful. On Message. Me like.

But this silver award winner was my favourite ad of the night. A campaign for 'Smooth E Baby Face Cream', an acne cleanser, these spots were made in Thailand, and aired in an episodic soap opera format. It's so weird, engaging and funny that it's hard to look away. Something is lost in translation a bit with YouTube but... enjoy nonetheless.


This is a bit of a wonky file - it plays to the end and then repeats itself. True story.

a-b-See kids website

So you'll find that as my digital blood, sweat, tears and bachman turner overdrive get poured into a project, I'm likely to post it here for general consumption.

Yesterday was the media launch for a-b-See, a children's vision program run by the BC Association of Optometrists. Of particular importance to me personally is the interactive website we built. It features 5 interactive games designed to educate and entertain kids between 3-9.







It was really interesting to work on this project, because of all the considerations that have to be made when you're talking about kids. They can't necessarily read, so we do voiceovers (check out the 'Do You See...' game - I do some of the voices!). They can't use the mouse well, so everything has to be big, easily understood and consistent across sections.

So I was very happy to hear that at yesterday's launch, the kids were really having fun engaging and playing with the games. Yay for the kids, yay for the site, yay for everyone. Plus -I think the games are really cool. Check them out... even as an adult I find I can waste a surprising amount of time on them!

It's true! I found my soul mate!

Oh! That's rich! Where have you been all my life you glorious creature?



Wow, your lips are so soft and they taste like the delicious lasagna I ate earlier..



Mmmmmm... the sweet taste of forbidden siamese twin sex.



That's right. You're a star. And I'm a star fucker.*



No way! You were on the varsity tongue wrestling team? I played on the varsity tongue wrestling team!

Or how about an animated gif of the sordid makeout scene? Damn I love me some macbook.


The dream threesome - me, me and mac.

*Joke stolen entirely from the amazing Sarah Silverman in Jesus is Magic.

Mac Book Photo Booth

So Scott just got a dope new MacBook and we've been nerding out all night. The best feature by far? The built in camera, which is a fantastic idea. It also comes with a little software app - Photo Booth - that is a classic example of mac innovation. It's dead simple and big fun...


Scott and the Beckstar getting all distorted up in here.



Uh hi, is this where I register for Every Tree Must Fork, the Inbreeding Survivors Support Group?



If I've ever looked like this to you on acid or other hallucenigens... thanks for holding yourself together. I would have freaked out on the spot.

Good times! Let the battle of the 17 inch laptops begin!

Nintendo Acapella

I don't know most of these games. Which means I am officially less nerdy than 100% of the people on stage here.

This is so clearly awesome that I haven't even listened to the audio, and I am still throwing it up on the blog like you threw your life away on drugs.

I am watching Entourage with the roommates, and so will have to wait until later to actually listen to this. So for the first time - I am as excited to see this video as you, my ignorant, ignorant readers.

Jay-Z plays chess.

So this HP campaign came out in July. What can I say - I'm not Chopper 9 News, aiiight?

HP worked with Motion Theory director Matthew Cullen and Goodby Silverstein + Partners (the agency driving the excellent state of their designs and ads) on 5 spots featuring personally guided tours of celebrities' hard drives, illustrated simply with their hands, voice, and some cg.

I am including the following spot, featuring Pharrell, because it he is the only celebrity gangsta enough to allude, albeit delicately, to having porno in his 'personal' computer world. Unlike soooome people, not to name names (Survivor creator Mark Burnett, who, judging by his beady eyes, is so obviously is into pornography, but instead fesses only to ebay auctions, bad billboard designs and show ideas).



In the MTV world, he's known as Pharrell Williams. On the Pong message boards? Only as huge_joystick.

The other celebrities are:

• Jay-Z, CEO of hip hop - who wins a chess game and shows some Gehry.


• Shaun White, master of snowboards, gold medals, gravity - who has the funniest video of the series. He likes myspace, 'tons of crazy photos', and video game cheat codes. Awesome!


• Mark Cuban, technology maverick - who owns the Dallas Mavericks, and answers 1,000 emails a day.

The visual environment of this campaign - the ads, website, etc. - have a quite different feel, with illustrations that are really Saul Bass in style. They look cool on their own, but I think they seem weird and retro in a campaign with such modern and tech-looking ad spots.



See all the ads, the new 'making of' video, and more media of varying degrees of awesome, on the hp personal again microsite.

Three depressing things I saw this weekend...

Here are three four depressing things I saw this weekend:

1. The intense and anxious look on the face of a very old man using the Safeway blood pressure monitor.

2. Jip, the nonhuman roommate, jumping just short of the cab of Scott's truck, and flailing to the pavement in an awkward twist of legs and wet fur (actually that one was pretty funny).

3. Dragonheart the movie. Starring Dennis Quaid. On cable. On Saturday night.

4. Mika's knee! Another party foul, except this one was perpetrated by a sidewalk.

Not a depressing fall weekend overall though - what with all the pumpkin parties, afternoon engagement parties, dog parks and gourmet Sunday dinners with the roommates. Photos will surely soon come of some of the more beautiful fun.