Tag Archives: video

The Guy Behind "The Fox"—The Summer’s Funniest Music Video—Talks About Going Viral

by Isela Harris Posted on September 5, 2013

Mother Jones

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That’s the music video for “The Fox,” an infectious, wacky, and exuberantly funny new song by Norwegian entertainment duo Ylvis. It was posted to YouTube on Tuesday and is already a hit. Gawker hails it as the true “Song of the Summer,” beating Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” BuzzFeed praises it as perhaps the greatest music video on the internet. The Week thinks it might be the “‘Gangnam Style‘ of 2013.” USA Today has weighed in, proclaiming it “the next viral music-video sensation.”

The video (directed by Ole Martin Hafsmo) depicts a man in an orange fox costume who dances and belts out noises a fox might make, including “gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!” and “fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow!” As you can tell, the lyrics (posted below) get creative and sort of insane with its answers.

For the vast majority of Americans, “The Fox” will be their introduction to Ylvis, a musical-comedy act inspired by artists such as The Lonely Island, Tenacious D, and Flight of the Conchords. But the duo (brothers Bård and Vegard Ylvisåker) is an established act in Norway, where they have their own talk show. The music video was meant to promote the show’s new season, but to the shock of its creators, it’s taken on a life of its own.

“To be honest I am quite surprised!” Bård tells Mother Jones. “This song is made for a TV show and is supposed to entertain a few Norwegians for three minutes—and that’s all. It was done just a few days ago and we recently had a screening in our office. About 10 people watched—nobody laughed.”

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The Guy Behind "The Fox"—The Summer’s Funniest Music Video—Talks About Going Viral

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Alyssa Milano Weighs In on Her "Sex Tape" About the Bloodshed in Syria

by Thorzar Posted on September 4, 2013

Mother Jones

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No, you don’t get to see actress Alyssa Milano have sex. Yes, you get to hear some depressing bullet points on the bloodshed in Syria.

Early Wednesday morning, Funny or Die—Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s comedy website—posted a “leaked!” sex tape of the 40-year-old Milano (who’s famous for her roles on the TV shows Who’s the Boss? and Charmed). The video is, of course, a staged comic bit. Milano and a handsome man start getting it on right as their camera “accidentally” swivels to a TV broadcasting an evening news report on the crisis in Syria, and the Obama administration’s push for military intervention. The TV set is mounted next to a mirror, in which the viewers can see limbs flopping and a bed sheet moving.

“I think it was a really fun way to get people to realize that there are important issues our country is dealing with right now,” Milano tells Mother Jones. “If people end up learning something about the crisis in Syria that’s a good thing—even if I had to do a sex tape to lure them in.”

The video ends with Milano saying to her lover, “This is boring, change the channel, put it on the Swamp People,” referring to the History channel’s reality TV series that documents the lives of alligator hunters.

To promote the “Syrian sex tape,” Milano tweeted out the following on Wednesday:

Funny or Die’s Nick Corirossi, one of the writers and directors of the “sex tape,” is keeping up a similar act. “I was the tape’s finder,” Corirossi says. “Funny or Die every once in a while tries to purchase sex tapes…but this time it was more boring than ever. It was all about all this Syrian stuff. It’s the most boring sex tape debacle I’ve ever been involved in.” (Corirossi did say that he does not believe the video takes a political position on intervention, but does serve as “an update” on Syria news.)

Milano has dabbled in political fare before. Since 2003, she has been (along with a bunch of other celebs) a UNICEF ambassador, and has traveled with the UN program to Kosovo, India, and Angola. She’s voiced her support for same-sex marriage. And she starred in a 2010 Funny or Die video (Ron Livingston, Gillian Jacobs, and many more) urging Americans to vote. Funny or Die posts a lot of political satire and content—and has done fake celebrity sex tapes before, as well.

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Alyssa Milano Weighs In on Her "Sex Tape" About the Bloodshed in Syria

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Donald Rumsfeld, Iraq War Architect, Is Skeptical of Intervening in Syria

by cuppyteen Posted on August 29, 2013

Mother Jones

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Donald Rumsfeld weighed in yesterday on the Obama administration’s possible plans to intervene militarily in Syria. He is skeptical and expressed confusion about the whole situation during an interview with Fox Business Network’s Neil Cavuto:

There really hasn’t been any indication from the administration as to what our national interest is with respect to this particular situation.

You remember Donald Rumsfeld. He was the 13th and 21st United States Secretary of Defense, first under President Gerald Ford and then President George W. Bush. His hobbies include playing squash and roping cattle. He has championed wrestling as an Olympic sport. He is one of the greatest unintentional poets of the 21st century. And he tweeted this last March:

There are, in fact, many reasons to be skeptical and cautious about bombing Syria; even if many of Rumsfeld’s neoconservative brothers in arms haven’t gotten that memo, yet. US intervention in the bloodshed in Syria may or may not work out, but Rumsfeld has zero credibility here. As a member of the Bush administration, Rumsfeld gave strong indication that it was in our, and everybody else‘s, national interest to—because of those weapons of mass destruction, of course—send ground troops to Iraq.

Right… That. Staff Sgt. Sean A. Foley/US Army

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Donald Rumsfeld, Iraq War Architect, Is Skeptical of Intervening in Syria

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Take a Virtual Flight Through Yosemite’s Fire Zone

by SuzanneBl Posted on August 28, 2013

Mother Jones

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Several weeks ago, a fire started in California’s pristine and wild Stanislaus National Forest, about 150 miles east of San Francisco, close to Yosemite National Park. By August 19, the blaze, known as the Rim Fire, was doubling in size every day. On August 27, it was 180,000 acres, bigger than the city of Chicago. Some 3,700 firefighters have used 460 fire engines, 60 bulldozers, and 15 helicopters to try to control it. And it’s still growing.

Watch the video above for a Google Earth bird’s-eye view of the areas that are threatened by the fire. Read more about what makes the Rim Fire an especially scary wildfire here.

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Take a Virtual Flight Through Yosemite’s Fire Zone

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Corn on Hardball: Why Are Republicans Calling for Obama’s Impeachment?

by y3kyabkl Posted on August 27, 2013

Mother Jones

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This year, a smattering of US Congressmen including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) have publicly called for President Obama’s impeachment. DC Bureau chief David Corn says that the mounting impeachment calls are like drug addictions in that “you keep having to get a bigger, better fix.” Watch Corn discuss the calls for Obama’s impeachment with David Axelrod, former senior advisor to President Obama, with host Chris Matthews on MSNBC‘s Hardball:

David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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Corn on Hardball: Why Are Republicans Calling for Obama’s Impeachment?

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Chicago or Chiraq? “I Don’t Wanna Say There’s No Hope, But I Don’t Know, Man”

by Justin Thomas Posted on August 24, 2013

Mother Jones

Things have gotten so bad recently on the streets of South and West Chicago, Chi-town has earned a new moniker: “Chiraq.” But the city’s troubles with gun violence are old news—see our earlier chat with the filmmakers behind The Interrupters—and we’ve become desensitized. This gripping new documentary short, titled Chi Raq, by London-based filmmaker and photographer Will Robson-Scott is sufficient to shake you from the comfort of your armchair liberalism and give you a fresh dose of reality as it applies to Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. I caught up with Robson-Scott to find out how he navigated these dangerous streets, and get his take on what’s wrong with America.

Mother Jones: A refreshing thing about your documentary style is that you don’t seem to have an agenda: You just take a complex issue and focus on those affected by it. Are you trying to help us understand what’s happening in Chicago at a more visceral level?

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Chicago or Chiraq? “I Don’t Wanna Say There’s No Hope, But I Don’t Know, Man”

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Explained in 90 Seconds: How Climate Change Fuels Wildfires

by Markianish Posted on August 23, 2013

Mother Jones

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From the Rim fire currently engulfing California to the Black Forest fire that burned more than 500 homes in Colorado, wildfires are becoming more destructive. In this video, Matthew Hurteau—assistant professor of forest resources at Penn State University—explains how warming temperatures, prolonged drought, and a century’s worth of fire suppression policy are “priming the system to make it more flammable.”

After you watch the video, be sure to check out Climate Desk’s detailed explainer on the link between climate change and destructive fires.

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Explained in 90 Seconds: How Climate Change Fuels Wildfires

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Watch: How Climate Change Is Melting the Ski Industry

by Fredrick Wise Posted on August 22, 2013

Mother Jones

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In certain industries, global warming is causing a lot of hurt. One business that will really, really be hit hard? Skiing.

To put it simply, the ski industry’s business model is melting. A number of resorts have already closed due, in part, to lack of snow—and in the future, a much smaller total area of the northeastern US will be good for skiing.

In this talk, University of New Hampshire Ph.D. candidate Elizabeth Burakowski outlines her research on global warming and how it is changing the face of skiing. In the process, she also tells her personal story of becoming fascinated with the study of “albedo,” the reflectivity of surfaces (for instance, snow)—which ultimately helps us to understand the ski industry’s struggles.

Plus: This video features a must-see interpretive dance of the jet stream.

Burakowski’s talk is from a live August 15 event held by Climate Desk—in collaboration with thirstDC and the Science Online Climate conference—to showcase new and innovative communication about climate change.

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Watch: How Climate Change Is Melting the Ski Industry

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Watch This Video of Louisiana’s 24-Acre Sinkhole Swallowing a Grove of Trees

by kowalski099 Posted on August 22, 2013

Mother Jones

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For the current issue of the magazine (subscribe!) I wrote about the Bayou Corne sinkhole, a swampy, reeking, 24-acre hole in the earth that opened up near the site of an abandoned salt cavern in rural Assumption Parish, Louisiana. After the sinkhole first appeared (at about 1/24th of its current size) last August, Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered the 350 residents of Bayou Corne to evacuate. On August 2, Louisiana sued Texas Brine, the company that mined the salt cavern that experts have identified as the trigger for the sinkhole. Every few weeks the sinkhole burps—this is really the term the geologists use—and somewhere between 20 and 100 barrels of sweet crude bubble up to the surface. Really, it’s best explained in the piece.

I saw a lot of strange things in Louisiana, but on Wednesday, Assumption Parish emergency response office, which continuously monitors the sinkhole for burps and seismic activity, released perhaps the strangest video I’ve seen yet. It’s an entire grove of trees simply being swallowed up by the sinkhole—something that was known to happen but no one had managed to capture clearly on camera.

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Watch This Video of Louisiana’s 24-Acre Sinkhole Swallowing a Grove of Trees

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Gay Mayor of Vicco, Kentucky, Reacts to the "Best Segment of ‘The Colbert Report’ Ever"

by jogakatowicefitness Posted on August 16, 2013

Mother Jones

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It’s being called the greatest segment The Colbert Report has ever done.

On Wednesday night, the Comedy Central news-satire program aired the latest installment in its “People Who Are Destroying America” series. The segment is on Johnny Cummings, the openly gay mayor—and a part-time hairdresser—of Vicco, Kentucky, a hamlet of about 330 people. Vicco made news earlier this year when it became the smallest town in the United States to pass a ban on discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. (The ordinance passed by a 3-1 city-commission vote. According to Cummings, who introduced the ordinance to the city council, representatives from five other towns told him that they want to be the next ones to pass such a “fairness ordinance.”)

“Everything considered, I was remarkably pleased with the way the Colbert segment turned out,” Cummings tells Mother Jones.

“Russia‘s not the only place trying to defend its family values,” host Stephen Colbert says, referring to the culture war over America’s traditional “small-town morals,” as he introduces the clip. What follows is a touching, funny, and stereotype-pulverizing look at a tiny Appalachian town and how its residents feel about the anti-discrimination policy and their mayor. Watch it here:

“If God makes ’em born gay, then why is he against it?” a Vicco resident says, in the clip’s moving final moments. “I can’t understand that. I’ve tried and tried and tried to understand that, and I can’t.”

The night after the segment aired, Cummings told Mother Jones about why he agreed to do it. “We got a lot of attention after that New York Times article ran in January, and we got these offers from production companies wanting to do all this crap,” Cummings recalls. The “crap” here refers to how five production companies, including that of ABC, have recently shown interest in filming a reality TV show in Vicco. “So when some of them called, I was often quite rude to them…But then I got a call from The Colbert Report. I always watch The Colbert Report…To get your point across, sometimes you just gotta laugh. That’s how I look at it. So I thought, okay, The Colbert Report would be perfect.”

The Comedy Central film crew came to town to shoot footage last February. The show also featured a pastor named Truman Hurt, the lone voice in the segment raising objections to the so-called gay lifestyle. The pastor’s objections, as well as local confusion over the legal specifics of the ordinance, were framed by some media outlets (such as MSNBC’s Maddow Blog) as a backlash and controversy. In Cummings’ view, no backlash actually occurred, and the town has been overwhelmingly supportive. “The only negative response we really got was the local TV station that played it up…and tried to cover it as ‘backlash,'” Cummings says. “If you check out my Facebook page, there’s not a negative thing on there about this. But some people tried to create a ‘backlash,’ I guess.”

The 50-year-old Cummings has been praised by residents and others for leading efforts to revitalize the Kentucky town’s infrastructure. Cummings is a Democrat (as is the majority of Vicco’s population) but has switched between Republican and Democratic party affiliation. Aside from his mayorship and his gig as a local hairdresser, he plays the blues on his saxophone in his spare time. He is also a big fan of Josephine Baker, the jazz singer and political activist who helped the French Resistance fight the Nazis.

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Gay Mayor of Vicco, Kentucky, Reacts to the "Best Segment of ‘The Colbert Report’ Ever"

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