(Scarecrow)

Here's a great idea for Halloween: disguise yourself as a scarecrow, sit on your porch and try to scare people. It worked out great for this guy.

(Hangman)

(Creepy)

This is a very brief clip of a guy catching a thrown knife. I'm posting it here because after the clip there's a very creepy promo for Saw III. If you watch it in the dark, with the sound up, it may give you a little pre-halloween chill.

(Products)

Be the first, and possibly the only ever, to own genuine MARKJAMESMURPHY.COM merchandise (now with new and improved design)

(Names)

"From Dick Butkus to Hootie and the Blowfish to Lake Titicaca, bad names have been with us forever. But thanks to the inevitable collision of reclusive nerds, bizarre artists and painfully unhip marketing execs, the video game industry enjoys some of the worst names of all."

(Technician)

At work yesterday there was lots of love for pharmacy technicians.

(Niagara)

Today is the 105th anniversary of an act of pure craziness - Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

"With mounting debts and unwilling to perform menial labor, Taylor was almost desperate. She wrote in her autobiography, “I didn’t want to lower my social standards, for I have always associated with the best class of people, the cultivated and the refined. To hold my place in that world I needed money, but how to get it?”
By throwing herself over the falls, she apparently reasoned.........
............there was some precedent for earning a living with one amazing feat.

Swept along in Niagara’s rapids, Taylor had little time to think of what the future might bring. In a ride altogether 18 minutes long, she was swept over the falls—“I felt as though all Nature was being annihilated,” she later recalled—into a little whirlpool, and onto the rocks. And then it was over. She was helped out of the barrel, cold, dazed, and confused, her bun still intact."

(Deadites)

Before he hit the big time by directing the Spiderman movies, Sam Raimi made the goofiest trilogy of horror movies ever: The Evil Dead trilogy. These comedy-horror masterpieces made a cult legend of Bruce Campbell, who portrayed the protagonist Ash in all three films.

This is an amazing mashup made by The MFF (Monkey Farm Frankenstein) combining clips from all three Evil Dead films to make a sort of demented music video starring Ash.

"The MFF vs The Evil Dead is composed of over 200 audio and video samples taken from the following films: The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness. NO OTHER ELEMENTS WERE USED.

If you like this, check out Monkey Farm Frankenstein's debut album on Some Bizzare Records, available at www.hmv.co.uk - search for MFF."

(Color)

Sony has an LCD television called the Bravia. They made an awesome advertisement for it involving thousands of gallons of exploding paint bombs.

"Our latest TV ad - featuring massive paint explosions - took 10 days and 250 people to film. Huge quantities of paint were needed to accomplish this, which had to be delivered in 1 tonne trucks and mixed on-site by 20 people.
The effect was stunning, but afterwards a major clean-up operation was required to clear away all that paint!
The cleaning took 5 days and 60 people. Thankfully, the use of a special water-based paint made it easy to scrape-up once the water had evaporated.
Keeping everyone safe was also an important factor. A special kind of non-toxic paint was used that is safe enough to drink (it contains the same thickeners that are sometimes used in soups). It was also completely harmless to the skin."

(Costume)

Scott Roeben at Dribbleglass.com came up with this list of Politically Incorrect Halloween Costumes:

Cave man. The proper term should be "evolutionally challenged"; "man" is overtly sexist; also insulting to those in loincloths.

Pirate. Distasteful to those with hooks for hands and the vision impaired (wearers of eye patches), not to mention parrot owners.

Dracula. Endorses the irresponsible practice of transmitting bodily fluids.

Clown. Deeply offensive to Geraldo Rivera.

Hobo. Derides the economically and hygienically disadvantaged.

Indian. Native-Americans have been oppressed, slaughtered and persecuted—imitation buckskin and feathers are the final insult.

Napoleon. Offends the French. (In much the same way deodorant does.)

(Pop!)

When you're feeling stressed, sometimes the best thing to do is pop some bubble wrap.

(Treadmill)

A kitty named November and a treadmill. Aaaaaawwwwwwww.

via Miss Cellania & NeatoRama

(Crowded House)

I was doing my dishes this morning and listening to the best of Crowded House. Man, they were great - truly the pride of New Zealand. Neil Finn has an unbelievable voice, and is everything I aspire to be as a musician. (Tragically, their drummer Paul Hester committed suicide in early 2005.)

Their 1988 album Temple Of Low Men is one of the discs I would need if I were stranded on a desert island - I could never get sick of it. Here's a video for a song from that album...

(Vintage)

To hell with these new-fangled 50" plasma displays. I want one of these vintage RCA colour televisions, circa 1961. Made with 'superb cabinetry master crafted of the finest woods'

(Geography)

Well, I tried out this little test, and did very badly. Turns out there are entire areas of our country that I just have absolutely no idea about. The map might as well say 'heare there bee Dragonf' or something. Can you identify all the states within the time limit? I'm so stupid I probably should wear a helmet.

(Jump)

Here's a clip of a stuntman jumping an ATV over a moving train. Little known fact: I'm the stuntman. (not true. I can't back that up.)

(Robot)

For some reason, you're a robot in a junkyard and things are being flung at you. Use the mouse to target and shoot the objects before you asplode!

Dr Compactor Defend your secret base in the city dump with your Arm of Doom.

Play this free game now!!

(Bond)

Due to the piecemeal way that movies are made, continuity errors can make it into the finished film. Here's a collection of continuity mistakes in James Bond movies through the years.

(Thermopylae)

You have to check out this movie trailer for a film called 300. I'm really looking forward to seeing this in March 2007. One of the greatest last stands in history took place in 480 B.C., when the most badass unit of soldiers ever defended a narrow mountain pass in Greece against a much larger invading force.

"Based on the epic graphic novel by Frank Miller, 300 is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite against their Persian enemy, drawing a line in the sand for democracy. The film brings Miller’s (Sin City) acclaimed graphic novel to life by combining live action with virtual backgrounds that capture his distinct vision of this ancient historic tale."

(Fun)

Today I went to Fun Forest, a kiddie amusement park right in the shadow of the Space Needle here in Seattle. I hung out with my friend Russ, his godsons Connor and Elliot, his friend Jeremy and Jeremy's daughter Bailey. A splendid time was had by all.

(KaBoom)

Kaboom. Pow. Blammmo! Booom! KKkKkkKkkkK! (this one's mostly for the guys.)

(Death)

Here's a link to an interesting list of 'Famous Last Words'.

"Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies." - Voltaire (attributed), when asked by a priest to renounce Satan

"Drink to me!" - Pablo Picasso

"I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, you are only going to kill a man." - Che Guevara

"I'm bored with it all." - Winston Churchill, before slipping into a coma and dying nine days later.

(Pythagorus)

Pitagora Suicchi (Pythagorean Switch) is a Japanese educational show that features awesome Rube Goldberg devices.

"The Rube Goldberg devices that appear during the beginning, ending, and between each corner (segment) are called Pythagorean Device .......
...... The main focus of the program is a puppet show, but the subject is mainly advanced by the small corners. World phenomena, principles, characteristics, and the like are introduced in an entertaining way. As a feature of the show 'Pitagora Suicchi' is sung as an eye catch for each important point." - Wikipedia

(Fab)

Here's a mash-up of The Beatles done by Hank Handy. It's been around a while but I first discovered it yesterday and when I heard the first two measures, I broke out into a grin (when the dissonant opening chord from Hard Day's Night is dropped at the end of the organ riff from Let It Be). It's a stunning piece of work, mixing Beatles snippets from many phases of their amazing creative arc.

(The audio file is mirrored here from Random Think.) click the picture below to download.

Here's a link to a YouTube video of the same track but with visuals.