– – Foghorn Leghorn is not the best known Looney Tunes character, but deserves a bit more attention. He’s about to get it in one of the on-going Geico commercials, where it is posed whether Foghorn Leghorn would make a really bad book narrator…
The answer is, extremely! Foghorn is an anthropomorphic rooster with a Central Virginia accent and a “good ol’ boy” speaking style who is full of bluster, hot air, and himself. He starred in 28 cartoons in the Golden Age of American animation, first appearing in 1946. We are shown the rooster narrating A Tale of Two Cities in his own inimitable way, offering much irritating commentary along the way. So irritating is Foghorn that Henry the Hawk, also present in the recording booth for the session, just can’t take it anymore, and picks up a bat to explain the situation to the extremely verbose rooster…it’s classic stuff!
Most of us know someone who is at least somewhat like Foghorn Leghorn, and have been tempted to deal with them in a similar fashion…just resist, because assault and battery is illegal!
– – In a wonderful nod to the classic car chase from the movie Bullitt as well as 1970’s detective shows (think “Starsky and Hutch”), the latest Geico “Cats and Dogs” commercial asks whether Geico can save you 15% with actor Mike McGlone answering himself, “Do dogs chase cats?” Then we’re treated to an old-school car pursuit with a furry twist…
Cool at the wheel of an early 1970’s Mustang is an orange tabby (Jax the cat), who doesn’t appear overly concerned about a hot pursuit by a boxer (Drake the dog) in a beat-up gas guzzler through mean city streets. There’s even a funky jazz fusion soundtrack to accompany the chase sequence!
While we’re not shown the outcome of the chase, we do get a cool undercarriage shot as one of the cars vaults a rise in the road. My money’s on the feline wheelman, who needs fear no boxer for torque art with him…
– – I don’t know a lot about progressive and house dance music, but I know what I like, and Toronto-based electro sensation Deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”) often performs in costume that includes a giant stylized mouse head , usually red in color and with strobing eyes, although I prefer the black variant, evil maus (shown above left).–Someday, perhaps more icons will be furry!
His album, For Lack of a Better Name (2009) is a personal fave, with “Moar Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff” playfully creepy and hauntingly memorable with a repeating funereal theme! It’s great stuff for those of us who like Halloween year-’round!–Rock on!
– – In one of several GE commercials for their Ecomagination campaign, we are shown “cows in concert,” touting the company’s use of Biogas Technology using, err, waste from cows and landfills to generate energy. These cows are the rock stars at a concert that they are powering, and we are shown their hooves working a bass drum pedal, hitting a cowbell (–what else?) with a drumstick, and working a mixing panel slider.
At the end of the clip, one of the bovines even takes to trying a little crowd surfing…very mooving!
– – It’s Ellie the Elephant, and this perky pachydermswings out of the jungle in the newest GE Ecomagination commercial to a pulsing soundtrack of the Benny Goodman jazz standard, Sing, Sing, Sing.
Jiving past jet engines and electric car charging stations, this baby’s got what it takes and she knows how to move it…and as a side benefit the hot licks accompanying her may just interest some of the younger audience in the best of swing jazz…
– – Imagine a TV show about three roommates in their 20’s; sounds like familiar territory, right? Not so if those roommates happen also to be a vampire, werewolf, and a ghost! As the trio struggles to hide their dark secrets from the world, they help one another navigate the complexities of living double lives while trying to be human. Such is the core premise of Being Human, a re-imagining on the Syfy network of a dark and witty BBC original series.
British humor and sensibilities don’t always translate well in the States, and so not everyone is happy with the idea of an Americanized reboot of an acclaimed British series. Syfy has promised that this won’t be a poor recreation of the series, but we’ll just have to wait until the January 17th premier to see.
They had me, after all, with the werewolf character…I still miss “Oz” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
– – If you enjoy the unexpectedly weird, you might like Regular Show, an offbeat cartoon on The Cartoon Network about a blue jay called Mordecai and a hyperactive raccoon named Rigby who work as groundskeepers at a large park, spending much of their time and effort avoiding work and seeking to entertain themselves. They are essentially slacker-type twenty-somethings bossed by a living gumball machine who have a Yeti coworker.
In spite of these and other surreal characters, the Regular Show while bizarre is a kid’s animated series written for adults, and it works!
– – As if we all didn’t suffer enough at Christmas, you’re soon to be hit with both a Yogi Bear and a Smurfs movie! As Al Bundy might have questioned, “Are we not fit to die?!”
The live-action/CGI Yogi Bear movie opens December 17th, and stars none less than Dan Aykroid as the voice of Yogi with Justin Timberlake doing the honors (?) as Boo-Boo Bear. Aykroid was reportedly sent tapes of Daws Butler performing the original voice of Yogi Bear, but refused to listen to them, preferring to do his own take on the character. The movie is reportedly pretty thin on a story line, not that there was great intellectual content in the original Hanna-Barbera cartoon…
Of greater interest to me is the fact that the film in theaters will be preceded by a new 3D short with Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner entitled, “Rabid Rider.”– -Now that’s entertainment!
– – No, they haven’t found the Dogman of Wisconsin…it’s just some Australian art turning heads and uniting playfulness with an edgy sexual content.
The exhibition titled “Returning to the Animal Within” is by Marc and Gillie Schattner of Sydney, and features 20 paintings and five sculptures of dog-headed humans at play and in repose. The sculpture pictured titled “Good Boy” shows that canine-human chimeras also enjoy a good cup of coffee, but its anatomical correctness resulted in police investigating an obscenity charge.
An upcoming sculpture depicts a dog-man in a suit stooping to pick up his own poop; a good example, and environmentally responsible!- -‘Mutt or smut?–You decide!
– – Talk about guerilla theater! Earlier this month during a live newscast tracking the progress of Hurricane Ike that showed the wave-lashed beach off Galveston, Texasthe on-site weatherman had to cope with the unexpected appearance behind him of…an anthropomorphic bear!
In a surreal moment worthy of the best of Trigger-Happy TV, the bear-costumed figure moved with grace and agility behind the weatherman, seemingly unconcerned about the rough seas and striking a pose or two for the viewing audience. The befuddled newscaster, his thunder utterly stolen, could think of nothing better to do other than to shift the camera to a view of a battered pier…all the while kinda pretending that the bear’s antics were not going on!
…caught by surprise by a furry, it was a moment to live for!
– – Foghorn Leghorn is not the best known Looney Tunes character, but deserves a bit more attention. He’s about to get it in one of the on-going Geico commercials, where it is posed whether Foghorn Leghorn would make a really bad book narrator…
FOXSYLVANIA 
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