In this new Late Late Show segment called “Toddlerogrophy,” host James Corden, and actress and dancer, Jenna Dewan Tatum, push their talent and fitness to the limit with dance classes taught by toddlers, in which the two must mimic their instructors’ steps. This is one of those “Why did I think of that?” comedy sketches that writers kill themselves over.
https://youtu.be/IK_8AQSkudk
British musician, Ian Gordon, makes John Williams’ iconic “The Imperial March” (Darth Vader’s Theme), from the Star Wars saga, quite a happy little ditty by changing the theme to a major key. It makes you believe there’s a party going on round here, a celebration to last throughout the year.
And here’s the original doom and gloom version.
To promote awareness for their annual Gates Letter (this year focuses on the world’s energy crisis), Bill and Melinda Gates unleash their epic new viral video to the masses.
Jimmy Fallon and Oscar-winning actor, Kevin Spacey, act out scenes written by elementary school kids who were only given the title of Kevin Spacey’s hit show, House of Cards, and had to write the rest. If you’ve never seen Kevin’s impression of Christopher Walken, you’re in for a treat.
In 1958, Frank and Dan Carney opened the first Pizza Hut in Wichita, Kansas. It took them a few years to make their first television commercial, though as they realized by the mid-1960s, half of the revenue came from takeout orders. “Putt Putt to the Pizza Hut” was their debut in 1965. It features a 1965 Mustang JR gas powered promotional car Made by the Powercar Comany of Mystic, CT. These were made with the cooperation of the Ford Motor Company for use in dealer promotions and other uses.
This bite-sized little puppy is having a little trouble with the stairs. But no worries, he figures out another way down.
One of Canada’s most esteemed writers and cultural voices will be joining the University of Guelph. Lawrence Hill has been appointed a professor in the College of Arts.
He will teach creative writing beginning in July.
“I have always loved to teach, mentor and encourage developing writers, and I can’t think of a more exciting way to embrace that passion and to support the world of Canadian letters than to join the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph,” Hill said.
“As a writer, citizen of the campus and teacher, I very much look forward to embracing the community.”
Among his 10 books of fiction and non-fiction, Hill’s best-known work is The Book of Negroes. Since its publication in Canada in 2007, it has been translated into 10 languages and published around the world.
The novel received numerous accolades, including the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and CBC’s Canada Reads and its French-Canadian equivalent, Le combat des livres. It was made into an award-winning TV miniseries co-written by Hill.
“Lawrence Hill is a tremendous talent who has influenced our country’s literary and cultural history through his writing, public speaking and advocacy work,” said president Franco Vaccarino.
“I am delighted that he is joining our University.”
Charlotte Yates, provost and vice-president (academic) added: “Lawrence Hill brings energy, creativity and a diverse and unique perspective, which will enhance the learning experiences of our students.”
Hill’s 2015 novel, The Illegal, was inspired by stories of refugees around the world and is in the running for Canada Reads for this year. Hill is currently adapting the novel for another television miniseries.
“Lawrence Hill tackles complex issues,” said Don Bruce, dean of the College of Arts. “His focus on identity and belonging is particularly powerful, and he gets readers to think about and even challenge their own views and beliefs.”
A member of the Order of Canada, Hill currently chairs the jury for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize, viewed as Canada’s top literary award.
Early in his career, he worked as a reporter for the Globe and Mail and the Winnipeg Free Press. In 1986, he moved to Spain to write fiction.
Hill has taught fiction and mentored writers in the Booming Ground program at the University of British Columbia, Ryerson University, the Humber School for Writers, the Banff Centre and Johns Hopkins University, where he earned his master’s degree in creative writing.
Kye Smith, an Australian drummer, mashes all the songs you know and love from Nirvana into five-minute “drum chronology” that includes everything like Blew from the Bleach album to You Know You’re Right.
Watch Kye’s other 5-minute crunches from The Beatles, Blink 182 and Green Day below.
“Humankind seems to teeter between hubris and paranoia: the hubris of our ever-growing power contrasts with the paranoia that we’re permanently and increasingly under threat. At the zenith we realise we have to come down again…we know that we have more than we deserve or can defend, so we become nervous. Somebody, something is going to take it all from us: that is the dread of the wealthy. Paranoia leads to defensiveness, and we all end up in the trenches facing each other across the mud.” – Brian Eno
The Ship, the new album by Brian Eno, will be released on Friday, April 29th, 2016 via Warp Records. The Ship is Eno’s first solo record since 2012’s Grammy-nominated LUX. Originally conceived from experiments with three dimensional recording techniques and formed in two, interconnected parts, The Ship is almost as much musical novel as traditional album. Eno brings together beautiful songs, minimalist ambience, physical electronics, omniscient narratives and technical innovation into a single, cinematic suite. The result is the very best of Eno, a record without parallel in his catalogue.
“On a musical level, I wanted to make a record of songs that didn’t rely on the normal underpinnings of rhythmic structure and chord progressions but which allowed voices to exist in their own space and time, like events in a landscape. I wanted to place sonic events in a free, open space.
One of the starting points was my fascination with the First World War, that extraordinary trans-cultural madness that arose out of a clash of hubris between empires. It followed immediately after the sinking of the Titanic, which to me is its analogue. The Titanic was the Unsinkable Ship, the apex of human technical power, set to be Man’s greatest triumph over nature. The First World War was the war of materiel, ‘over by Christmas’, set to be the triumph of Will and Steel over humanity. The catastrophic failure of each set the stage for a century of dramatic experiments with the relationships between humans and the worlds they make for themselves.
I was thinking of those vast dun Belgian fields where the First World War was agonisingly ground out; and the vast deep ocean where the Titanic sank; and how little difference all that human hope and disappointment made to it. They persist and we pass in a cloud of chatter.”
The album opens with the 21-minute eponymously titled “The Ship” on which Eno’s cyclically sung sea-chant builds in ominous drama, snatches of distant voice and creeping electronics. Listen in a dark room and physically feel the power of this endless sea. “Wave. After. Wave.”
“Fickle Sun” follows in three movements. The first continues where “The Ship” left but with Eno’s voice sounding more upfront, determined, even despairing: “and so the dismal work is done” / “the empty eyes, the end begun” / “there’s no-one rowing any more, abandoned far from any shore” and the refrain “when I was a young soldier..”.
“The poem read by Peter Serafinowicz was created by a Markov Chain Generator (software written by Peter Chilvers) into which we fed accounts of the sinking of the Titanic, some First World War soldiers songs, various bits of cyber-bureaucracy and warnings about hacking, some songs of mine, some descriptions of machinery, and so on. The Generator produced thousands of lines of text from which I extracted a few and then put them into this order.”
The album’s finale is a Lou Reed penned cover of The Velvet Underground’s “I’m Set Free”, a band who were famously credited by Eno as the inspiration behind his early music explorations as an art student.
“Written in the late sixties, Lou Reed’s song “I’M SET FREE” seems even more relevant now than it did then. Perhaps anybody who’s read Yuval Noah Harari’s SAPIENS will recognise the quiet irony of ‘I’m set free to find a new illusion’…and its implication that when we step out of our story we don’t step into ‘the truth’ – whatever that might be – but into another story.”
Coinciding with The Ship’s release, a series of Eno installations will be happening around the World at which you will be able to hear an alternative telling of The Ship in multi-channel 3-dimensional sound installations.
The impact of The Ship album will surely be felt long after these installations are ended; it signals yet another cycle in Eno’s creative career – “This album is a succession of interleaved stories. Some of them I know, some of them I’m discovering now in the making of them.”
Tracklist:
01. The Ship
02. Fickle Sun
(i) Fickle Sun
(ii) The Hour Is Thin
(iii) I’m Set Free
YTV adds a new live action comedy to its set list with Nickelodeon’s highly anticipated series School of Rock, which follows a group of overachieving prep school students who band together and learn to rock out when they meet their new, unconventional substitute teacher. Viewers can catch a sneak peek of the series on Saturday, March 12 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on YTV following Nickelodeon’s 29th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards (day-and-date with the U.S). School of Rock will then premiere Thursday, March 31 at 7 p.m. ET/PT and continue to air in its regular Thursday-night time slot.
School of Rock follows Zack (Lance Lim), Lawrence (Aidan Miner), Freddy (Ricardo Hurtado), Summer (Jade Pettyjohn) and Tomika (Breanna Yde) who learn to take risks and reach new heights thanks to substitute teacher Dewey Finn (Tony Cavalero), a down-on-his-luck musician who uses the language of rock ‘n’ roll to inspire his class to form a secret band. Throughout the school year, these middle-school classmates find themselves navigating relationships, discovering their unknown talents and learning lessons on loyalty and friendships.
The series features guest appearances from Pete Wentz (Fall Out Boy), Kendall Schmidt (Big Time Rush) and Kira Kosarin (The Thundermans). Episodes will include musical performances by the cast covering hits “What I Like About You” (The Romantics),“Lips Are Movin” (Meghan Trainor), “The Kids Are All Right” (The Who), “We’re Not Gonna Take It” (Twisted Sister), “Shut Up and Dance” (WALK THE MOON), “Heart Attack” (Demi Lovato) and more.
School of Rock is developed by Jim and Steve Armogida (Crash & Bernstein, Grounded for Life), who also serve as Executive Producers with Jay Kogen (The Simpsons, Henry Danger). The 2003 movie of the same name was written by Mike White. Its director Richard Linklater and producer Scott Rudin serve as series Executive Producers, along with Eli Bush (The Newsroom, Ex Machina).
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Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.
Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com
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