Chez PLJ

There’s not much more to say about the U.S. presidential election beyond what Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert skewer so delightfully every night, but there are some clever virals circulating on the net.

First up is palinaspresident.us, a very amusing Flash site showing President Palin (cough) in all her “I’m a maverick” glory. Just click around the picture; the site’s creator Sean Ohlenkamp is updating the site daily until the election, so several clothes shopping jokes just sprung up since the last time I was there.

Do you remember the Budweiser “Whassup?” ads about eight years ago? The creators of the ads (originally a three-minute film that was remade into a beer ad) have come back with a follow-up video supporting Obama. I thought the concept sounded rather lame (I never liked the Budweiser ads much, and I generally don’t like political advocacy videos), but the film is very cleverly done (all but one are the same actors; same camera shots) and even manages to make a rather powerful statement. Watch the original ad (top) first, to refresh your memory.

If you liked the change-blindness psychology experiments that we posted in January, you’ll be delighted to know that the Brits have gone a little farther still along that same path. What an amazing hole in human perception!

via videosift.com

Since we all need a little cheering up after last night’s election.

Credit where it’s due: the pun was coined by Alex at Neatorama, but only ’cause he saw the clip first!

We celebrated Thanksgiving today at the cottage with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Pam, and had a rollicking session of Guitar Hero on the Wii. After listening to the Pat Benatar song that Daddy played, Jon came up with a rather cute mondegreen when he declared that he wanted to download “Wiggle with Your Best Shot”. I think I actually prefer that title!

I’ve mentioned the New York City-based group Improv Everywhere a couple of times. But wouldn’t you know it, the day that Photon went for her Herding Instinct Certificate, IE came to Toronto. Doing a Toronto version of their MP3 Experiment (a group effort that uses as many willing volunteers as possible, all synchronized to their iPods). Less than a kilometre from our house. Serves me right for not constantly checking the website but…arghh!!!!

You know, sometimes nothing comes to the point like political parody, and this election year, Michel Rivard struck early and right-on-the-mark against the Tories’ view on arts funding. He posted a wee video on YouTube that has had, as of today, over half a million views, not including the English-subtitled version I’ve posted here. It’s gotten a fair amount of press, but in case you haven’t heard of it, or hadn’t gotten around to watching it, here’s your chance. Bravo, M. Rivard!

There are instructions for turning the subtitles on at the beginning, if they don’t default to on.

Language warning: for those pre-teens watching, there is mature language used. Comically.