Music Video Collection

I've already told the Dave Matthews story, so no need to rehash that or repost the video here. But over the last few years, I've played around a lot with setting Looney Tunes to music. My method is pretty simple: I download the cartoons from Youtube or elsewhere, and then take snippets from them and arrange them to an Mp3 of a song using Windows Movie Maker.

It doesn't work with every song. There are songs that sound like they might work, but turn out to be completely wrong. Songs with long, meandering musical jams tend not to work, because I've found that the key to making one of these videos is being able to match a piece of animation to what the singer is portraying lyrically. From the beginning, animation and music have been closely linked. Early cartoons, especially those of Disney and Warner Bros., were timed to music, with the action plotted out on musical bar sheets. Disney's "Silly Symphonies", MGM's "Happy Harmonies", and Warner Bros.' "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" were so titled because they were originally mini-musicals. A whole cartoon, including plot, characters and situation would often be based on the title or lyrics of a popular song. So the animation often translates quite well even to modern songs, because the timing of the action and the beat of the music are still very similar regardless of the song.


I have rounded up nearly all of my Looney Tunes/Music experiments, with annotations where needed. These are the only ones currently still online, though. I have done a couple more that were removed due to copyright claims by bands who don't want people to showcase their music in unique and interesting ways.

"Radio Nowhere" by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
This one came from an online discussion with a fellow classic cartoon fanatic. The song had just come out, it was a big comeback for Springsteen, and I immediately noticed how poetic the lyrics were. We picked apart the lyrics and discovered that nearly every one of them had a scene in a Looney Tune that could illustrate it...and I made this as a result!


"Handlebars" by Flobots
This song is probably destined for the one-hit wonder category, but it's a great song and worked really well with cartoons. It's actually a very dark song, about the rise of a tyrant...so the use of the Hitler caricature from Bob Clampett's World War II classic "Russian Rhapsody" was a must!


"Insane In The Brain" by Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill were one of the pioneering hip-hop groups of the late 80's and early 90's, and while they're still around, this was their biggest hit. I think the title says it all as to why it works with Looney Tunes!


"Lawn Chair High" by Rehab
Rehab were literally a group of Southern redneck stoners who sang and rapped about their lives. They had a few minor hits in the late 90's and early 2000's, this one included. A song about sitting in a lawn chair in your driveway and getting wasted doesn't sound like something that would go well with cartoons...but you might be surprised! The bits with the bear are from "Porky's Bear Facts", a black and white cartoon that was redrawn (badly) in color in the 1960's and that's the only version I could find of it, sadly.


"Always Where I Need To Be" by The Kooks
The Kooks are a British pop-rock group and are just plain fun. They claim the Kinks and the Beatles as influences. This song just makes people want to dance...and if there's one thing Looney Tunes had plenty of, it's dancing.


"What About Everything" by Carbon Leaf
Also a one-hit wonder, as far as I know. But this song is lyrically amazing, poetic in every sense of the word. Every time I look at this video, though, I can't help but think I could've made it better.

Carbon Leaf- What About Everything...Looney?
Uploaded by MatthewHunter. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

"Whiskey You're My Darlin' by The Poxey Boggards
A close friend of mine in college introduced me to this band. As far as I know, their claim to fame is playing ancient Irish folk songs at Renaissance festivals, and the dirtier the song, the better! This old drinking song worked well with the 1930's cartoons of Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising, who gave the finger to Prohibition by making lots of cartoons that revolved around drinking.

Whiskey You're My Darlin
Uploaded by MatthewHunter. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

"Bad Day" by Daniel Powter
ANOTHER 1-hit wonder. But very fitting for the likes of Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote!
Looney Tunes Bad Day



"Ants Marching" by Dave Matthews Band
One of my first attempts. It's also probably the only video I have done using only 4 cartoons.

Ants Marching

Virtual Farming?

I haven’t written in this thing for a while, and I promised myself I would keep it updated regularly. The best laid plans of mice and men, right?

Well, here’s a good topic to get it back on track…Facebook Farmville!

Some clever game developer called Zynga decided that since practically the entire world uses Facebook to communicate, there might be a market for “game” applications. At first, I found it extremely obnoxious, because people would send me invitations to play this “FarmVille” game I had never heard of, and figured was a waste of time.

Then a friend popped up in the IM feature and asked me to be his “neighbor”. Well, I figured I might as well give it a try. It couldn’t be as bad as “Mafia Wars”, a game by the same developer that, once accepted, was impossible to figure out, seemingly mindless, and would send constant notifications and clog up the Facebook feed. As it turned out, it was much more user-friendly.



Farmville has a visual, user-friendly approach, and there is actually a purpose and strategy to it. You start with a patch of “land”, some “coins”, a plow, and a “market” to buy “seeds”. From there, the goal is to plant and harvest produce, thus making money to expand and plant more. As your money increases, so does your “experience”, and the game gives you various “ribbons”, or goals, to strive for. Eventually you can buy animals, trees, decorations, buildings, and a wider variety of produce options. It also allows you to “help” your other Facebook friends with their own farms in exchange for money, and give various animals, trees and items to one another.



It’s little more than a time-waster, but since I check my Facebook regularly, it isn’t much of a chore. Everything from milking the cow to harvesting the cotton can be done in less than 5 minutes with the click of a mouse. The novelty will wear off after a while…but until then, it’s really kind of fun.

Proof that I shouldn’t knock something until I’ve tried it!

I'm sorry, Kanye.

I'm sorry, Kanye.

I really wouldn’t want to be in Kanye West’s shoes right now. We all know the story by now, about how he upstaged Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Awards and proclaimed that Beyonce’s video was “one of the best videos of ALL time”.

Like everyone else who saw it, I immediately got into the act of ridiculing and condemning him for it. I was like seemingly everyone else in the world, hopped on the ol’ internet and joined the chorus.

I’ve been making fun of Kanye West long before Sunday night, though. He has been pulling stunts like this for years at award shows…whining and upstaging people at the Grammy shows, saying controversial things at big gatherings just to piss people off. He is the ego that ate the music industry. Even the “South Park” creators made an entire episode lampooning him for his egotistical and self-glorifying antics...ultimately drawing parallels to his way of thinking with Eric Cartman’s. Oh yeah, and they called him a gay fish.

Sunday’s incident, as far as I can tell, was not the worst thing he’s ever done. Yet, for some reason, it seems the world has made it out to be. What he did was mean, obnoxious, stupid and wrong. But when immediate and brutal criticism and joking justifiably resulted, it hasn’t STOPPED, even three days after the fact. President Obama reportedly called him a “jackass”, millions of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube posts skewered him and even stooped to dropping the N-bomb and saying they wished him dead.

Then the talk-show hosts went after him. Jay Leno essentially demanded that he apologize, asking him what his recently deceased mother would have thought. In response to that, he apologized, and cried on national television. Then came the jabs by Conan OBrien. Then Jimmy Fallon weighed in. Then all the bitchy daytime gossip reporters on the morning shows did their bit, and it’s still going on. You can bet it’ll be on SNL soon enough. There will be t-shirts made and song parodies by the assload.

What I have to ask myself and everyone else is: when do we stop casting stones? It’s one thing to joke around about something a celebrity did…they knew the job was dangerous when they took it. But to continually punish someone for something they have formally apologized for? How many times have we all done something in front of a crowd of people that we later regretted? We’ve all been or known the guy who got drunk and made an idiot of himself at a wedding, said something mean to or about a close friend or lover and lost them forever, or done something stupid and gotten arrested in public view. What happens after that? Well, what usually follows is backlash and punishment, an apology, mending of fences, and (let’s keep it hip-hop here!) “G’won, brush ya shouldas off.”

Kanye hasn’t been granted that chance to brush his shoulders off. I think it’s time for us, the public, to realize that there comes a time to forgive people, no matter how famous or well-known they are. We all like to point at celebrities and do a Nelson “HA HAAA!” when they screw up, because it makes us feel better about ourselves. But let’s be honest…WE are the reason these people are famous in the first place. Kanye West didn’t become a pop superstar with millions of dollars and billions of fans because he woke up and found a magic genie lamp in his room one day. Neither did Taylor Swift or Beyonce or Jay-Z or Lady Gaga or the late Michael Jackson or Pink or Blue or Chartreuse or whoever. Like Eminem says, “We’re the ones who made you”. Imagine being someone who believes you’re the greatest of all time in your chosen art, because you’ve been told so by legions of adoring fans. Your self-esteem is through the roof, because you’ve been lead to believe that you can do no wrong. Your public places you on a pedestal, they idolize you, and they pay their hard-earned money to experience what you say and do. But the second you make a mistake, they become a lynch-mob and chop that pedestal down, and throw you to the wolves. Imagine how that would make you feel.

I don’t like Kanye West. I like a few of his songs, but I don’t care for him particularly as a person. Still, that does not give me or anyone else the right to do what we have all done to him.

I heard this song on the way home from work today, and while I’d always liked it, I had never really paid attention to what it was saying. Suddenly, I understood how Kanyeezy must be feeling right now. West has even collaborated with the song’s creators, Coldplay, on a few occasions.

Viva La Vida lyrics
Songwriters: Berryman, Guy Rupert; Buckland, Jonathan Mark; Champion, Will; Martin, Christopher A J;
I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain
Once you go there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world

It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn't believe what I'd become

Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?

I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world


© UNIVERSAL MUSIC - MGB SONGS;

Finally, let's all remember:

Luke 6:42: “How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”
-Jesus (Who does, indeed, walk.)

I’ll drop it, Kanye. I hope everyone else will do the same.

Memo to various parties...re: everything

Dear life: please start sucking less, and please do it soon. Dear rut: I'm tired of being in you. Dear God: please help me find a steady, enjoyable and adequate-paying job. Dear graduate schools...I'm looking at YOU. Be afraid! Mwhahaha.

Interesting political article, and my thoughts on it

The following comes from The American Spectator, and is written by Ben Stein. Yes, THAT Ben Stein.

"We've Figured Him Out
By Ben Stein on 7.24.09 @ 9:45AM

Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine bill passed?

Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths:

The American people in their unimaginable kindness and trust voted for a pig in a poke in 2008. They wanted so much to believe Barack Obama was somehow better and different from other ultra-leftists that they simply took him on faith.

They ignored his anti-white writings in his books. They ignored his quiet acceptance of hysterical anti-American diatribes by his minister, Jeremiah Wright.

They ignored his refusal to explain years at a time of his life as a student. They ignored his ultra-left record as a "community organizer," Illinois state legislator, and Senator.

The American people ignored his total zero of an academic record as a student and teacher, his complete lack of scholarship when he was being touted as a scholar.

Now, the American people are starting to wake up to the truth. Barack Obama is a super likeable super leftist, not a fan of this country, way, way too cozy with the terrorist leaders in the Middle East, way beyond naïveté, all the way into active destruction of our interests and our allies and our future.

The American people have already awakened to the truth that the stimulus bill -- a great idea in theory -- was really an immense bribe to Democrat interest groups, and in no way an effort to help all Americans.

Now, Americans are waking up to the truth that ObamaCare basically means that every time you are sick or injured, you will have a clerk from the Department of Motor Vehicles telling your doctor what he can and cannot do.

The American people already know that Mr. Obama's plan to lower health costs while expanding coverage and bureaucracy is a myth, a promise of something that never was and never will be -- a bureaucracy lowering costs in a free society. Either the costs go up or the free society goes away.

These are perilous times. Mrs. Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, has given Iran the go-ahead to have nuclear weapons, an unqualified betrayal of the nation. Now, we face a devastating loss of freedom at home in health care. It will be joined by controls on our lives to "protect us" from global warming, itself largely a fraud if believed to be caused by man.

Mr. Obama knows Americans are getting wise and will stop him if he delays at all in taking away our freedoms.

There is his urgency and our opportunity. Once freedom is lost, America is lost. Wake up, beloved America."


------------------------------------------------------------------

Sounds like Ben Stein used his "Clear Eyes" today.

And before you read any further, keep in mind that I respect those who disagree with me. If you do, you are welcome to comment. This is simply my personal insight, and is not meant to be inflammatory towards any of my Liberal (or Conservative, for that matter) friends.


So here goes. Obama's just a figurehead for a bigger agenda. It's "party politics" gone awfully wrong. There's a bigger picture here, and it involves the Democratic Party as a whole. Democrats are not all bad, and neither are Republicans...but they offer very different viewpoints. Too much of one side or the other spells trouble. Yeah, Bush made some mistakes...and who was there to call him on it? Democrats. Clinton messed up. Who called him on it? Republicans. Checks and Balances, the basis for a multi-party system and the foundation of the American government.
But the Democrats seem to have decided that they know best, and that they are no longer content to be only part of the system. They want to BE the system.
So how do you get a majority in the House/Senate, and get a President in office to seal the deal ? Step 1? Get the media to talk about you. More importantly, get the media to say nothing but bad things about your opponents.
That’s politics...and the Republicans are just as guilty of it, right or wrong. Remember the Clinton scandals? The media loved that, because it was interesting and marketable. It also hurt the Democrats.So as not to let it happen again, the Democrats essentially took the reins of the media, and used it to slam the Bush administration every step of the way. Bush won a second term, and that infuriated the Democrats even more…but they’d already planted the seeds. No matter what Bush did, right or wrong, it was criticized in the media. The major news outlets, the music industry, and Hollywood all did their part. You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing “Bush is bad”, or “Republicans are bad” or “The War is Bad”. Surely, because Katie Couric or Wolf Blitzer said so, it MUST be true.
To the Democrats, it really didn’t matter if it was true or it wasn’t…because they had a not-so-secret weapon. They knew that Bush was on his final term anyway, and wanted to cut the legs off his party by using him as a symbol. What was wrong with Bush MUST be wrong with the entire Republican Party, right? The media asked us “If this cartoonish cowboy who mangles the English language in every speech and compromises our freedom by wire-tapping us is in office now, imagine what they’ll do for an encore!” What they offered for an encore was John McCain and Sarah Palin…and they never had a chance. From the moment they entered the picture, they were ridiculed. “Because they DESERVED it!” some of you are thinking as you read this. But read on.
The Democrats, on the other hand, offered a slicker package. McCain was an old white guy…just like all previous presidential candidates. (Ok, some of them were young white guys, but if you average their ages …eh, just hear me out.) So the Democrats went with a young black guy. Nobody would argue with THAT, would they? Except, perhaps, those “ignorant and possibly racist rednecks most likely to be Republicans”. He was also young, charming and an excellent public speaker…so, naturally, the media talked him up. To make the “old white guy” contingent happy, he brought on Joe Biden as a running mate. It helped that if anybody had anything bad to say about Biden, they were few and far between…and even if he had a lot of detractors, the media wouldn’t relay their message anyway. They had the media behind them, the prospect of having the first black President in history, and a weak opposition.

John McCain was old, cranky and had about as much charm as a hunk of stale cheese…and of course the media made sure we judged him on those counts, and heard little of what he had to say. Sarah Palin was a cartoonish soccer-mom with a royally screwed up family, and got the exact same treatment. Nobody was going to listen to her, and just for insurance, the media silenced her anyway.
Obama won. People celebrated. Now, though, people are starting to rethink that victory. We as a country were given a choice between two products. The usual choice between a lesser of two evils. But we chose based on the packaging and not the contents. Like being on the cereal aisle at the grocery store, given a choice between corn flakes and frosted flakes. One box is very colorful. It claims to taste good AND be good for you. It has a TONY THE TIGER on it, and he says they’re “GRREAT!” You saw its ads on TV too, didn’t you? The other box is pretty bland, and looks pretty silly next to all the modern, flashy boxes on the rest of the aisle. It’s plain white, with a straightforward picture of the product and a blandly colored silhouette of a rooster, who doesn’t say anything. Yet both boxes have a nutrition facts panel on the side that tells the truth. The flashy box contains sugar-coated cereal that looks and tastes sooo good that it’s hard to resist. But eventually the enjoyment passes, and what’s left are the unhealthy after-effects of too much sugar and not enough substance. The blander box has something that doesn’t have much of a taste to it, and may make you feel self-conscious for eating something so bland. Not very appetizing. But it offers nutritional value without harming your health.

We’re coming down off the sugar high. And now we’re discovering that because of the overwhelming support, we’ve made our choice and we have to stick with it. Until we go back to the store in 2012. By then, though, Tony the Tiger will OWN the store…and he’ll be offering double coupons. “Sure”, says the tiger. Eat all you want…we have that nationalized health care now, don’t we?

Technical Difficulties

Ever had one of those weeks where nothing electronic/mechanical worked for you? That's me this week. I got back to Austin from a 4th of July weekend in Fort Worth on Monday morning to find that there was still no word on my next work assignment. Figuring I'd make the best of it, I decided to beat the boredom and the 105-degree heat by finishing my ongoing project of putting all of my old VHS tapes onto DVD. Tuesday, I went out and got some new DVD-R discs. They didn't work, or at least, 6 out of every 10 didn't. Figuring it was probably the machine but worth trying a different brand of discs, I went out to go get some. My car would not start. The closest car repair shop was closed for the day.

Wednesday, I called the auto repair shop. Since I could not start the car to get it there myself, I asked if they would tow it for me. They could, but the towing service was busy and couldn't take any more work orders. Today, to the tune of $398.00 and a whole morning worth of to-and-from hassle, I have a new starter for my car. I also have new DVD discs...and they do not work. The machine is no longer under warranty...buy just 3 months. Oh well...at least my car works again. My fraternity had a saying: "Perge!", meaning "press on". As my life has moved ahead that has become less of a saying and more of a necessity, because whatever obstacles I encounter, the best way I know to deal with them is to keep going. I figure if I get knocked a few steps backward, they can always be regained.

Whatever happened to the Songs?

I was listening to the radio on the drive back from Fort Worth to Austin today, and even though I skipped between radio stations a million times, I kept hitting on the song "the Climb" by Miley Cyrus. Now, I have nothing against Miley Cyrus. But she's a 16-year-old girl. What does she know about "The Climb", as in, life experiences and conquering life's challenges? I am sure some anonymlus songwriter will forever remain anonymous because they sold their song to her record company. A spoiled, un-educated Disney kid has become a chart-topper for singing someone else's song. I'm reminded of a song by Blue October, a Texas band fronted by Justin Furstenfeld, a guy with serious mental issues who keeps himself in control by writing songs.

i'm like a storm cloud eager when you go out
calm again
i'll ask permission for the wrong to win
drop the bomb and get your story out and get it on
in a haze the beginning of your days
gonna fall down
got to get back up but at your own pace
got to fill your cup and find the way
out of your own maze
yeah boy what you said now

and hide the rule book throw it in the waste
look strong
like you belong cause you do belong
whether right or wrong you belong

i'm on your side if you fail atleat you tried
to keep your aching celebrating wonder making heart alive
yeah and pride don't keep it all inside
don't keep your aching celebrating wonder making heart alone
write you own song

whatever happened to our inner glow
whatever happened to the song the soul the me i used to know
whatever happened to my radio
whatever happened to my song
it is my song

so here's a preview shove it under old-new
or call it rock or pop or bach or fuck
goddamn where did we go wrong
now there's a catergory for every song

yeah we only want to sing when we want to
yeah we only want a dream we can flaunt to
yeah we only want to fly by the side making love to the rhythm be a jeckyl and a hyde
yeah we only want a field we can run through
yeah we only want a beat we can drum to
yeah we only want to fly by the side making love to the rhythm be a jeckyl and a hyde

so stride if you fail atleast you tried
to keep your aching celebrating wonder making heart alive
and pride don't keep it all inside
don't keep your aching celebrating wonder making heart alone
write your own song

whatever happened to our inner glow
whatever happened to the song the soul the me i used to know
whatever happened to my radio
whatever happened to the song

gonna wake up strong ya we're all gonna wake up strong...

That's all I have to say about the subject...or, rather, all Blue October had to say 6 years ago. It still holds true.