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I don’t think I’ve ever posted about Degrassi on DarrenFoulds.com, but I was a huge fan, not only back in high school when it was on it’s first run, but even into the late 1990′s early 2000′s when it was in daily syndication. I think I had taped every episode at one point. And of course, it always helps when you’ve got friends who are fans of the show too.

Anyway, big news is that Neil Hope, the actor who portrayed Wheels on Degrassi (one third of the Zit Remedy) died in 2007. His death isn’t so much the news, but that the family kept their personal loss to themselves until this time. Good for them. Unlike the death of Whitney Huston this week which is all over the place and probably makes things all the more tough for the grieving family and friends, Neil Hope’s family were able to grieve in peace. Now, many years later, the family can share the news and fans know.

So, here’s a link to Neil’s obituary on CBC.ca and a video news segment for the full story.

And here’s Neil Hope as Wheels with Joey and Snake on Degrassi…

I could probably have an OK Go category here on my blog, I post about them often enough. But I don’t. In February of 2012, the band released a new video on YouTube that was created in partnership with Chevrolet for a SuperBowl ad. It doesn’t need to be said, but it’s a great video. Fantastic concept, really well executed. My two-and-a-half year old watched it three times with me before breakfast. But it was a fake. See for yourself…

Heartbreaking, I know. First off, do you really think they could capture those sounds with those microphones as they passed them? At best, the sounds was beside the mics, at worst, it was behind them. And I don’t care how much furry stuff you’ve got on them, there’s going to be a lot of wind noise at that speed.

Then there was the whole, smacking the pianos thing. No way you’re going to hit the right keys, even if you’ve got the pianos height adjusted. There’s just to much variance in driving and bouncing around. And strumming the guitars at that speed. You’re going to be ripping strings off, that’s what you’re going to be doing. It was nice of them to throw in some faked missed notes and stuff though. I could go on, about other instruments, things that break, vocals, impossible camera shots, etc. But I won’t.

Instead, I’ll humbly admit that I was wrong. This was another legitimate (and brilliant) OK Go performance, and here’s how it was done. For those who don’t want to read the whole article, the video was edited, the sound was massaged (like when a piano or guitar was missed,) and they lip-synched it. But that’s okay.

They drove the course, they modified the car, they smacked keys, strings, bottles, tin and pulled 180′s to play the music with the car. Then like any recording, they fixed things up in the mix. Totally legitimate.

So, last year’s VW Darth Vader ad was a crazy success. What was the plan for this year? A fat dog. While the fat dog who gets back in shape was very cool… Surprise StarWars ending! Oops. Hope I didn’t give that away.

And for good measure, the making-of video.

Now, is it just me, or do the actors playing those two guys (the smoking guy and Dr. What’s-His-Name (“I’m a wanted on eight systems.”) look a lot like they did back in the 1970′s? Great job!

I’ve been sitting on this video for a few days. I don’t know why, there’s a previously un-heard George Harrison guitar solo hidden in the Here Comes The Sun master tapes. If for some reason you don’t want to watch/listen to the whole thing, it probably won’t matter to you that the lost Beatles guitar solo can be found at the one minute mark of this video. Probably because you won’t even know that it’s not the original. In which case, why are you even here?

Gosh, I sounded nasty up there, didn’t I? My appologies.

I stumbled across the Star Wars Uncut project a couple years ago, then forgot all about it. Well, it’s alive and well and there’s some fantastic stuff being made for it, including Malcolm Sutherland’s great animated bits.

So, while you should go and watch the entirety of Star Wars Uncut, I heartily recommend that you spend some time at Malcolm’s site and check out his videos. I really dig his style and wanted to share a couple highlights here.

Some of his Star Wars Uncut stuff…

The Astronomer’s Dream trailer…