Music Video Friday: Blur – Coffee & TV

Today’s Music Video Friday selection is Blur’s adorable anthropomorphic milk carton video for Coffee & TV. 

Every once in a while I do an “Anthropomorphic Cuteness” post (you can see my very first post explaining my obsession with inanimate objects being given human characteristics & cute smiley faces HERE). I haven’t actually done one of those posts in a while – I should get back to doing them again! Just like these Music Video Friday posts which no one ever looks at, I selfishly post those for myself because it’s something I enjoy. Someday I’ll find someone who shares my love of anthropomorphism! 😉 But now let’s talk about Blur & this video…

I do like Blur but I totally missed out on that whole Blur vs Oasis thing since that happened before I moved to the UK. Well, I’d have most definitely been on “Team Blur” since I hate Oasis (but I actually prefer Gorillaz, singer Damon Albarn’s other band). Coffee & TV is good but isn’t exactly my very favorite Blur song. However, the video would very likely make my list of Top Ten Music Videos (which is a top ten you know I’ll be doing at some point). It’s a classic. 

The video was directed by Hammer & Tongs (aka Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith). They did a lot of other great music videos also worth checking out (such as Pumping On Your Stereo by Supergrass and Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim). What I didn’t realize is that they also made the movies The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (which I found very disappointing – I actually liked the BBC adaptation more) and Son Of Rambow (which I always wanted to see but never got around to). But Coffee & TV, in which a “missing person” milk carton goes off in search of the guy in the photo (Blur member Graham Coxon) is the very best in the fairly long list of Hammer & Tongs videos. 

Check it out if for some strange reason you missed it: 🙂

Now take my poll which is only almost 20 years too late! 

Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part X: The Amazing World Of Gumball

What is this strange Amazing World Of Gumball show?! My kid was bored the other day & ended up on Cartoon Network. The below clip is what I saw. It’s funny! I worried that it was inappropriate & immediately made her turn the channel. Then… later looked for it myself on YouTube. 😉

Anthropomorphic food! My favorite thing! This clip, The Battle, cracked me up:

Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part IX: Junior Senior

I haven’t done an Anthropomorphic Cuteness post in ages! I was reminded yesterday while being forced to play Just Dance again how much I enjoyed the Junior Senior song Move Your Feet when it was out & then I remembered that it had a cute video with one of my favorite things in the world: Anthropomorphic food! And it’s all pixel art so it’s even BETTER. 🙂

I believe this is the third anthropomorphic music video I’ve posted now (first was the Blur milk carton then the X-Press 2 video with the adorable mix tape). Check out this happy hot dog!

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. 🙂

A Galaxy Of Cute

Aw! SO DAMN CUTE! This piece, entitled “A Galaxy Of Cute” is from artist Jerrod Maruyama. You can check out more of his adorable art (Star Wars as well as plenty of other things) at his website HERE.

I of course also love the below piece of art from him, called “Totoro Garden”. Plus he’s done loads of Disney & Pixar stuff! And lots of anthropomorphic food!!!! It’s like he’s making this stuff specifically for ME! 😉

Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part VIII: Bowie Apple

Here’s a photo of an adorable kids t-shirt complete with an anthropomorphic apple that I like to call the “Bowie Apple“.

And speaking of David Bowie, I saw this fun gif the other day that I wanted to share. Artist Helen Green created this gif showing us “50 years of David Bowie’s hairstyles in 5 seconds“. 🙂

“Buscemi Bowie” appeared on Ministry Of Gifs soon after… Lol

Porco Rosso (1992) Review

Porco Rosso (1992)
Kurenai no Buta
Japanese: 紅の豚

Directed & Written by Hayao Miyazaki

Starring Voice Actors:
Shūichirō Moriyama
Tokiko Kato
Akemi Okamura
Akio Ōtsuka

(English Dub Voice Cast: Michael Keaton, Cary Elwes, Susan Egan, Brad Garrett, David Ogden Stiers, Kimberly Williams-Paisley)

Running time: 94 minutes

Plot Synopsis: (via Wikipedia)
The plot revolves around an Italian World War I ex-fighter ace, now living as a freelance bounty hunter chasing “air pirates” in the Adriatic Sea. However, an unusual curse has transformed him to an anthropomorphic pig. Once called Marco Pagot (Marco Rousolini in the American version), he is now known to the world as “Porco Rosso”, Italian for “Red Pig”.

My Opinion:

Version watched: English dubbed version

I’m sorry but I have to use the word “odd” again in a Studio Ghibli review. Maybe I should buy a thesaurus. Hey, does anyone own an actual dictionary or thesaurus anymore? You can just Google everything. I think back to when I was a kid & had a set of encyclopedias… Bet no one buys those anymore! Anyway, Porco Rosso is bizarre. There, I didn’t use the word “odd”!

First of all, I admit to only seeing the English dubbed version of this as it was on TV and I know I NEVER enjoy those as much as the subtitled versions so, therefore, I’ll probably be a little more harsh on this movie than it deserves. This is one of the “not for kids” Ghibli films. It’s hard to know who it’s aimed at… I’d say it’s the most “adult male” one I’ve seen so far. As I’m not male & really not at all interested in WWI flying aces (other than Snoopy), this movie didn’t speak to me the way other Ghibli movies have. It has quite a high IMDB rating & I’m sure plenty of people like this one. It’s just my least favorite of the Miyazaki-directed Ghiblis (I only have one left to watch – The Wind Rises. Will be interesting to see how that compares as that’s about a man who designed Japanese planes for WWII).

Porco Rosso, at least in the dubbed version, is a “manly” man (manly pig? pigly man?). He’s a womanizer & comes across as a bit sexist. He’s voiced by Michael Keaton so it was strange watching this just after seeing Birdman. The voice Keaton uses for Porco Rosso is fairly close to his smart ass superhero “Birdman” voice. There’s a woman who is in love with his character then there’s later a 17-year-old girl who also seems very fond of him (as he seems to be of her). I won’t pretend I didn’t find that a little disturbing. Especially when the girl’s grandfather says something like “keep your hands off my granddaughter” & Porco says “just looking at her makes me tired”. Er… What a pig! 😉

The 17-year-old girl in this, however, is another strong female Ghibli character. She’s an engineer & helps fix Porco Rosso’s plane. I think a big part of the reason I like Studio Ghibli films so much is because of the great female characters so I’m glad we got a decent one in this movie as well. She’s not the main character but she does help make up a bit for Porco’s somewhat sexist & unlikable ways and kind of brings out the best in him by the end.

Summary:

What can I say? Porco Rosso just wasn’t really my sort of thing. I respect it in the way I do all the Studio Ghibli films but just didn’t love it in the same way I do most of the other Ghiblis. It’s definitely a more adult one and aimed more at males. It’s certainly not a bad film & still a lot better than most movies out there. I wouldn’t recommend it as someone’s introduction to Studio Ghibli but it’s definitely worth a watch for those who are already Ghibli fans. Sorry for the quick & rubbish review but I’m off to see Ex Machina right now – that seems more “me”. 🙂

My Rating: 6.5/10

Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part VII: Christmas

Check out my favorite little Christmas plate complete with all kinds of cute faces on inanimate objects. Plus a few ornaments and a happy little star cookie with eyes. Ho ho ho! 😉

I’m hoping to have a movie review ready to post here tomorrow (the totally un-Christmassy Daft Punk’s Electroma as mentioned HERE – that should get a few “WTF?” comments. lol) and that will probably be the last post until after Christmas so, if I don’t get a chance to say it before the 25th, I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas! 🙂

Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part VI: Rectum! Testicle! GUTS!

I WANT THESE! These adorable anthropomorphic organs can be bought from this website: I Heart Guts! 🙂

The rectum is quite cute. (Rectum? It nearly killed him!): 😉

But I think I’m partial to this adorable testicle:

Seriously, though – you really need to check out the entire website. It’s hilarious! They have a description of each organ and what it does plus things such as their “likes & dislikes”. (The Rectum, Bringing Up The Rear details are my favorite! Favorite song: Drop It Like It’s Hot by Snoop Dogg. Lol). They also do art, pins & buttons, stationery, clothing, etc. The plush toys are definitely my favorite, though – they look so cuddly! And this Periodic Table Of Your Period looks quite handy…

Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part V

I was reminded the other day of how much I loved this song & video when it was out several years ago. Mix tapes! With FACES! Singing! SO CUTE!!! Anyway – the incredibly catchy song is called Witchi Tai To by X-Press 2. Check out the adorable video. 🙂

Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part IV: GROOT!

by artist Mike Mitchell

Because, seriously, is Groot is the cutest anthropomorphic tree ever or what?! I LOVE GROOT! 🙂

See these fabulous pieces plus loads more fantastic artwork featuring Groot & Rocket at this link: Dorkly. Oh, and go see Guardians Of The Galaxy if you haven’t already because it’s AWESOME! You can read my review HERE.

by artist Miru

by artist Meador

Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part III

For today’s Anthropomorphic post, I thought it would be fun to post this tribute to everyone’s favorite Disney live-action anthropomorphic car: Herbie the Love Bug. 😉 (and the cute art above comes from DeviantArt artist Zimeta HERE)

Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part II

Well, Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part I was a really long post so I’ll keep this one short. I first saw these singing carrots on YouTube YEARS ago and, yes, I still watch this clip every now & then. So. Freaking. Adorable. Enjoy! 🙂

Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part I

I like how I titled this post Part I like I’ll have a series of these or something. Well, I’d like to! We’ll see…

Anthropomorphism as defined by Wikipedia:

Anthropomorphism, or personification, is attribution of human form or other characteristics to anything other than a human being.

This is a big thing for me. Stick a smiley face on something and I’ll think it’s adorable. Like the plates in the above photo – I got those as a birthday present. Or like the Henry vacuums (are these just a thing in the UK?):

And Mrs Potts & Chip! Oh I love them:

It may have all started with the Blur video for Coffee And TV. I fell in love with that adorable little milk carton! (Video at the end of this post for anyone not familiar with it).

I’ve collected a few anthropomorphic things over the years (not much but I’d like more) and I thought it would be fun to start a series of posts where, even if only once in a blue moon, I post a picture of some cute anthropomorphised thing I’ve found. Here are a few pictures I’ve been keeping for a while with this post in mind:

A bag for my birthday presents (my hubby knows me so well):

A cute t-shirt I saw:

Claw machines from a recent holiday. (OMG! Look at all those!!! You do NOT want to know how much money I wasted trying to get some of these. I hate claw machines! Does anyone ever actually get anything out of those?? Well, I got the hot dog at least): 🙂

A birthday card I saw. Not sure if this fits the anthropomorphism definition but it’s freaking cute so I took a picture:

Moshi Monsters. A lot of the Moshi Monsters are anthropomorphic. The first two in this photo are my favorites – a bowl of chop suey & and an ice cream cone named Coolio:

By the way – I reviewed Moshi Monsters: The Movie recently for the The IPC’s always entertaining Shitfest. You can read my review HERE. Thanks again for allowing these adorable little monsters on your blog, Eric! (Warning: review maybe not entirely “safe for work”). 😉

If you’ve not yet had your fill of anthropomorphised cuteness, here’s Blur – Coffee And TV. Hopefully see you soon for Anthropomorphic Cuteness Part II. 🙂