Mason's World

For the next week or so (I'm accounting for my quickly changing tastes) my new favorite song is the Slap Chop rap. Before you read anything else, you should watch it RIGHT NOW.

So, why is this so great?

Before this was a song, it was a commercial. The guy who is selling the Slap Chop is famous (in a way) for being the salesman for the ShamWow! This original commercial went "viral" (which means it got watched and passed around by a lot of people) for how ridiculous it is.

But the Slap Chop takes things to new levels. A DJ got a hold of this new commercial because the salesman, Vince, gets a lot of attention. To make a name for himself, the DJ turned the new commercial into a song. And a damn good song at that! I can't get it out of my head.

The cherry on the top of this story is that I found out about this whole thing not from the Internet, but from TV. The makers of the Slap Chop found the song remix, loved it, and asked the DJ to make them a shorter version they could play on TV. They even changed their URL to SlapChopRap.com

Stop having a boring tuna. Stop having a boring life.

November and December is the holiday season in the US, and we're getting ready to kick it in to high gear with Thanksgiving this Thursday. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Thanksgiving, because it's a holiday that has basically devolved into being about eating HUGE quantities of food, which is something I'm neither inclined toward, nor good at.

Not only do I have to gorge myself, I have to do it three times. My fiance's parents are divorced and her mom, dad and my parents all live in the same town with us, so we have to do every holiday three times. That might sound like fun, but let me tell you, it's not. Not to me, anyway.

Honestly, I'm not super sure what Thanksgiving is celebrating. The elementary school line goes that the Pilgrims came to the "new world" and met the "Indians" (Native Americans) and we had a big feast - probably because the Pilgrims couldn't actually fend for themselves. There's a detailed discussion over on wikipedia if you want to form your own opinions (but be careful not to trust everything you read there).

(NOTE: Before you start reading this post, you should know that I'm speaking on behalf of myself - and NOT English, baby! That's true for every post I write here - but particularly true for this one. Uncle Mason says: BE GOOD, KIDS!"   

So, I'm not the only web-celebrity that I know. My girlfriend is also an actor. Actually... way more of an actor than I am. She mostly does stage acting, but one the company that put on a really great play she was in over the summer called "Fall of the House" decided to make a Web series about what it's like to put on the show.

The result is fothing, and it's great (though, full disclosure: there's a lot of language that you DON'T want to pick up from the show. Be warned!)

Much like the English, baby! soaps, Fothing is a lot more exaggerated than real life. It's about the 7 people who try to keep their theater company together and put on a great show. Of course, there are lots of obstacles that get in the way - including the evil rival theater company: "Love and Death Theater LTD."

What's even crazier about the series is how fast their making it. We get together once a month here at English, baby! to do all the lessons for 4 weeks. They film one 20-minute episode in a weekend, edit it in a week (which, if you've never edited video, is CRAZY fast! They probably shoot at least 8hours of footage, that needs to be cut down to 20 minutes.) The episode finally goes live about 9 days after they finished filming it. 

Anyway, I'm a HUGE fan of the series - and not only because I'm dating one of the actors. If you're of the appropriate age in your country to view content with some strong language and "colorful" topics, you should check it out.