How Much Money Do You Need…

 https://youtu.be/X6MN4eF3q1Q

The $5 Million Sports Car

 https://youtu.be/zpRRnm414nQ

Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think

Youtube Link

Star Wars: The Backstroke of the West

Oh, this is funny! Someone had given subtitles (in English for an English-language film!) for Star Wars III (Revenge of the Sith). It's almost as if someone got more and more stoned as they wrote out the "subtitles." The last few lines are almost complete gibberish.

Long time ago in the faraway galaxy
Star war
The third gathers
The backstroke of the west
The war came! The republic encountered
Two squares fight the vehemence
The improbity fills the world
The space general of the alliance is skillful
Kidnap the D the speaker the conduct
The proper abruption alliance troops tries
ratio prosperous drive with the

HT: Topless Robot

Silent Era Star Wars

Classic! Love the solitary piano playing the soundtrack.

Four-and-a-Half Years

I put up a similar video on this blog years ago, but this one is still fun to watch.

I Am Not Moving

"Hypocrisy has its own elegant symmetry."

Epic Voyage Through the Universe

This is a rather impressive video featuring different celestial objects within the universe. Can you name them all?

WATTS Zap - The Best of 2010

This is the full-length version (47 minutes long).

Ian McKellen Reenacts "The Bridge of Khazad-Dum"

Classic, and very funny! If you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings movies, this short video is a must watch! Although, obviously, McKellen had never watched Ralph Bakshi's 1978 version of LOTR (or perhaps even read The Fellowship of the Ring by that point in the filming of the movie).

Night of the Living Trekkies

Screw the book, give me the movie! :) I was LMAO while watching this video. And if you're a real Trekkie, you know the name of the female reporter at the beginning. ;)

Darth Schwarzenegger

A humorous "recasting" of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the voice of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars. NSFW (profanity).

Death Ray from Space!

His Mother's Voice

Alhamdulillah! This video is soooo wonderful, even yours truly nearly cried at the sight of eight-month-old Jonathan, deaf since birth, hearing his mother's voice for the first time.

Alan Parsons - All Our Yesterdays & Alpha Centauri

My favorite artist, Alan Parsons, continues to keep active in writing and performing new music. Two new songs have just been released (so new that I'm listening to the songs for the very first time as I write this): All Our Yesterdays and Alpha Centauri. The latter song, unsurprisingly, has a sound reminiscent to Parsons' mammothly popular song from 1982, Sirius.

Drum Corps: Amplification Not Required

This video's being passed around various drum corps alumni over at Facebook. As the junior corps activity slowly fades away due to the excessive tinkering of drum corps directors who can't leave well enough alone ("If it ain't broke...") and the exorbitant costs from corps needing to tour coast-to-coast each summer, I thought it would be nice to share a video from a time (1979) when the junior corps activity was still robust and the brass instruments were still bugles, which are designed to project sound outdoors, instead of using wimpy B♭ horns that require amplification for the audience to hear the music.

The corps in this video are the Santa Clara Vanguard, Phantom Regiment, 27th Lancers, the Bridgemen, Blue Devils, and Spirit of Atlanta.

Iron Baby

Milady's response: "So cute! So cute!" My response: "How does Iron Baby change its diaper when it's in that suit?" :)

Azureus Rising

I've come across a concept video for a proposed trilogy of feature films called Azureus Rising. The producers describe the series thus:

Azureus is the story of a young man who after escaping death and enduring a life changing journey - matures into a heroic freedom fighter. Azureus Rising is an epic tale of self discovery, obligation and love against all odds.

I realize this video is "concept," and visually it's quite good. But it also seems, well..., stale. Where have I seen all this all before? Super-human leaps, check. Pushing off so hard the ground breaks underneath you, check. Landing on one's fist and knees with a resounding thud, check. Sounds a bit too Iron Man-ish, Matrixy to me. And, of course, no bullet can touch our hero, no armor is too strong for our hero's weapons. The mechanical scorpion is easily dispatched with our hero's sword going through the armor like so much butter. Riiight! No doubt these movies will be produced and become monster hits.

Rendezvous with Rama

This very short film is a student(!!!)-made adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's 1972 novel, Rendezvous with Rama, which is about a mysterious alien spaceship that passes through (but does not stop in) our solar system in the year 2130. The novel has never been made into a film, although actor Morgan Freeman and director David Fincher tried to do so earlier in the decade; unfortunately, the project appears to be dead for the time being. (Are you reading this, J.J. Abrams?) Anyway, this is a superlative short film. I only have two quibbles about it: 1) What, no flashlights as the astronauts move forward into a dark tunnel? and 2) the throwing of the torch and the resulting explosion of light is not in the original novel. Otherwise, an awesome piece of work here!

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

I'm reading a book on the Civil War right now, and read yesterday the chapter on the Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing). I noticed on the map of the battle field that an Owl Creek borders the field to the west. Was that the same Owl Creek that features in the Ambrose Bierce short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge? Apparently not. The Shiloh Owl Creek is located in Tennessee, whereas the short story's Owl Creek is supposed to be located in Alabama.

Of course, the whole thing reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode (original airdate, February 28, 1964) that we all watched in high school.