Archive for January, 2013



16
Jan
13

Retroviral’s 2012 video Nominated for Academy Award

R ViralIn a move that has rocked the online world, Retroviral (arguably one of SA’s top online communications consultancies) has been nominated for an Oscar in the “Best Use Of Letters Made From Vegetables In A Company Promo Video” category.

“We got the call from the academy this morning,” said Mike Sharman, founder and MD of Retroviral, “it was Nelly Retardo.”

Since Retroviral started in 2010, the agency has landed some great campaigns and done remarkable work for brands and initiatives such as the Put Foot Rally, SAB, Nandos, 5Gum and Converse all of which is showcased in an innovative way in their annual showreel videos.

“Our inspiration with the first Retroviral showreel vid back in ‘11 was to show how the agency has evolved in a visual way by first writing the titles that are shown on-screen in a moleskin, then on a typewriter, then using a Macbook, then on an iPhone,” said Sharman.

 

 

“This time around we stuck with a similar theme, but chose to use a variety of mediums including a cassette tape sleeve, post-its on the bottom of sneakers, alphabet soup and notes stuck to a cork board.

“The coup de grâce though was the vegetable lettering we used at around the 2:30 mark,” continued Sharman, “our competition was Mozam-BLEAK when they saw that part.”

 

 

“For a young agency such as Retroviral, to graduate from the relatively straightforward method of using handwriting and typing in a showreel video to actual vegetable lettering in the space of only one year shows tremendous growth and innovation,” said Hawk Koch, President of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences.

Fans and critics alike are all in agreement that Retroviral’s chance of bagging the award are exceptionally strong considering the brilliant work the agency did in 2012 and the fact that they are the only agency in the category.

“Twenty-twelve was our best year to date,” said Sharman, “we worked with incredible brands, who in turn helped to change some lives – even for a few hours. We made an impact on sales, and we had our name forever etched into a Bronze Cannes Lion, thanks to the creative genius of Black River FC and their Nando’s Last Dictator Standing campaign.”

Congrats to the Retroviral team: an inspiration to all and a daily reminder of #whywedodigital Winking smile

-ST

15
Jan
13

True Facts About Morgan Freeman Tuesday

Morgan FreemanThe world is changing, it’s becoming a kinder, gentler place for each and every one of us. I have hard evidence of this fact thanks to the video I’ve posted below entitled “True Facts About Morgan Freeman”.

It used to be Chuck Norris. We read thousands of true facts about him that amplified his sheer indestructibility, his overpowering manliness and his unquenchable thirst for off-the-chart badassery.

Now, the spotlight is on Morgan Freeman and rightly so because as the video so clearly states, “The only reason the sun rises everyday is because Morgan Freeman narrated that sunrise in his dreams the night before.”

Part of me says we should thank God for Morgan Freeman, but another, much bigger, all-encompassing part says we should do exactly the opposite.

Please enjoy the following true facts about Morgan Freeman:

 

 

After watching that, I find I’m so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head.

I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain, but whose path was set in motion by Morgan Freeman.

I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend Morgan Freeman and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.

I hope.

Morgan Freeman.

-ST

14
Jan
13

Escape Monday: The World’s Most Surreal Places (Part Dos)

main-qimg-0068b231ea35173e9f15c7d533e462caI try to keep my promises here at SlickTiger Industries headquarters, which means when I say I’m going to post more insane pics of the World’s Most Surreal Places, I make that shit happen.

You’d be forgiven for thinking these pics had been digitally manipulated in some way because the places you are about to see are seriously that bizarre / staggeringly beautiful.

Just so we’re all above board and I don’t get sued for rampant plagiarism, these images and all the ones in the previous post are from this site (www.quora.com). Next week we’re going to take things to the next level and check out surreal man-made places.

BAM!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here comes my personal favourite. Like something straight outta Doctor Seuss:

 

 

What a crazy beautiful world we live in.

-ST

14
Jan
13

Escape Monday: The World’s Most Surreal Places (Part Un)

main-qimg-dd3d436b932d652eb4455c4c667db0eaIt’s Monday again and you are sad. On the way to work this morning you were all like “Ugh. This place again.” It will get better as the week goes on, but for now the outlook is a little bleak.

So you’re hitting up this motherflippin SICK site because you know your Tiger pal has your back when it comes to Mondays and today is a PRIME example of just that.

Hold my hand. We are going to take a magical trip to the world’s most surreal natural places to reaffirm how amazing the planet we live on is, restore your faith in the world and give you a couple of ideas of where to spend your next holiday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Huh. Not sure if I feel better about it being Monday, or worse because WHY THE FUCK AM I SITTING HERE WITH ALL THOSE COOL PLACES OUT THERE I COULD BE AT RIGHT NOW!

More at lunchtime. Watch this space mofos.

-ST

11
Jan
13

Rock’s Sexiest Voice Belongs to Aja From Nico Vega

tumblr_lvnoqlce2W1qhek23o1_500I tweeted this video yesterday evening, but it’s go fucking intense I figured I’d put it up on the site as well. It’s from 2010 so my internet standards it’s pretty ancient, but wow. It gave me goosebumps.

The band is Nico Vega and the track’s called “Fe Fi Fo Fum”. If you don’t know this band, you need to get into their debut, self titled album right now before the follow-up lands later this year.

Truth be told, the guitar and drum parts in this song are both a little average, but frontlady Aja Volkman’s vocals are so fucking intense the hairs on the back of my neck stood up watching this.

Check it:

 

 

Swear to God. I cannot actually fucking handle this woman’s vocals.

The way she builds the song, right from her first word, you just know she’s getting ready to unleash all hell and when it happens, she does it with so much passion, so much raw emotion that my blood went ice cold listening to it.

I think it’s really cool how unafraid she is. And yeah, she looks like a total crackpot, but in every interview I’ve watched with her she actually comes across as a pretty together person.

A little wild, but hey.

Since when is that a crime? Winking smile

-ST

11
Jan
13

Help The Tiger Put This Man In Space

431577_10150676433399434_591191503_nSo as you guys probably all know already because you are super internet-savvy mofos – Axe are upping the ante in the hugest way possible by sending someone into space.

That’s right, Axe has invited people to enter a competition that’s divided into a number of stages, the final one being strapping yourself into a goddamn rocket and launching yourself into motherflippin’ SPACE yo!

It’s arguably one of the most epic competitions I’ve heard of in recent years. Hit up the Axe Apollo Space Academy site for more details or just kick back and watch the radass video to follow.

 

 

Radass ne?

So anyway, here’s the rub. A good friend of man and all round stand-up guy by the name of SupaDan has decided to enter this competition which will see 22 people from countries all over the world shot into space one-by-one to experience zero gravity for roughly six minutes before coming back to earth again.

If anyone deserves those 6 minutes it’s my man SupaDan. This guy is such a total badass, he shot and edited this video for your Tiger pal, the first that was ever aired on Tiger TV, on a budget of exactly ZERO RONT.

This from a guy I didn’t even know. He then went on to cast me in one of the leading roles in a slasher / horror movie I acted in last year.

I know. What a total badass right?

 

 

Besides all that, Danny slaves away everyday, up at 3am, trudging through 10 feet of snow to work the railyards where they break his fingers with hammers if he doesn’t klap 18 straight hours of work hauling steel railway lines to make the very trains you and I ride on every day.

Then, at the end of the day, they shoot him before he trudges back home through 15 feet of snow to eat his supper, a cup of hot gravel, and then he crawls into his moth-eaten little sleeping bag under a bridge where he lies with tik-addicted bergies trying to roger him in his sleep.

If anyone deserves to go to space, it’s my man Danny De Nobrega.

He even included the following in an impassioned email he sent to me, his Tiger pal, begging for votes in the competition:

 

– I will exchange soft core sexual favours with your readers for votes.

– I will do stupid/embarrassing/risk of personal harm anything on photo/video/vhs/live tv/recordings to campaign for votes.

All it takes is a second to vote for this man and you could change his life forever.

 

 

Here’s the direct link to his entry: https://www2.axeapollo.com/en_ZA/802/danny-de-nobrega/.

Yesterday, for the briefest of moments, Danny was actually in the lead, but now I see he has plummeted down the list and is currently at number 12.

Guys, let’s make Danny’s wildest dreams come true or at least get him to do some stupid shit on camera for the sake of epic LOLZ because, in the words of the world’s second most famous child molester:

He believes he can fly.

He believes he can touch the sky.

He thinks about it every night and day.

Spread his wings and fly away.

He believes he can fly.

-ST

10
Jan
13

Treefiddy Review: Look Out Kid – Collide

Look Out KidThe Down Lizzo:

For starters, how long has it been since I last did an album review?!?! Useless!

To be frank, 2012 wasn’t a great year for music for me, I didn’t get properly stuck in and missed a lot of great albums that I’m scrambling to get my hands on as I write this. In the meantime, one of my readers sent me this one.

He’s more than just a reader though, Andrew Orkin is the guitarist for SA Band Look Out Kid and their debut album Collide is pretty much just what the doctor ordered for dreamy summer-day listening.

Collide is a melting pot of all the best elements folk, country, jazz, gospel and blues has to offer which makes for an album of polished, sultry jams that’s effortless to get into.

 

Sick Tracks:

“Collide” was the first track on the album that really spoke to me. A paradox of simple melodies woven together in complex arrangements, it calls to mind some of The Decemberists’ calmer, gentler tracks before building to a lush, Arcade Fire-styled bridge that showcases this band’s dextrous songwriting.

Like its name, “Safe House” provides comfort in the perfect synthesis of Orkin’s bluesey steel strings, jazz maestro Thembinkosi Mavibela’s amiable double bass and acclaimed jazz and gospel singer Zarcia Zacheus’s gorgeous, lilting vocals.

 

 

“Fish To Find” is also a winner. It’s a break-up song without all the cliched over-sentimentality that plagues similar tracks backed by melodies that sound like what Jack Johnson might write if he ever decided to release a Jazz album.

Should You Give A Shit:

Look, make no mistake this is not the kind of music I normally go for, which is a compliment in itself. There is only so much destructive stoner / desert / psychedelic / indie / folk / rock one man can listen to before something drastic happens.

Sometimes you gotta take it down a notch and that’s when I’ll spin an album like this. Something calmer, something classier, something you can chill out to that doesn’t bludgeon your eardrums to hell and back.

 

 

So kick back and dig “Collide” below and if that sounds like something you could dig, check out the band’s Bandcamp site here to download the album.

 

 

Final verdict: 7/10

-ST

09
Jan
13

Slicky-T Watches New Evil Dead Trailer – Gets Put Off A Weekend Away In The Woods FOR LIFE

da5c9f446079c5ea0e5243d6644ec31dI have my main man @FaustoBecatti to thank for this one. Remember awhile back I told ya’ll that there were rumours that there was going to be a new Evil Dead movie? Turns out those rumours were true.

Sam Raimi, who wrote, directed and produced the first Evil Dead film back in ‘81 is back this time as a producer and co-writer of the remake of Evil Dead.

The film is going to be directed by Fede Alvarez who, for a first-time director, looks like he’s done a bang up job of creating the most terrifying, gruesome, gore-filled movie I’ve seen in a very, very long time.

If you thought the original movies were full of over-the-top gore and disturbing shit, multiply that by about 1 000 and you’ve got the remake. For those who haven’t seen the originals, don’t be fooled by the title, this is not a zombie movie, it’s a demon movie and holy shit it looks insane.

Fair warning, don’t watch this if anyone can see your screen, hear your speakers or if you’re squeamish and don’t like seeing people vomiting gore onto other people.

Good times!

 

 

Fucking insane right?!

No idea whether or not I’m going to actually watch this movie. I try to limit the servings of fucked up shit I put into my brain to three, maybe four a month.

This trailer alone counts as 10.

What’s that you say? Let’s go to your cabin in the woods this weekend?

Yeah, I got two words for you buddy.

-ST

08
Jan
13

Movie Review: Looper

looper“Oh dear,” said J-Rab as she read the title of this blog post.

“Oh dear,” I agreed because that’s really the best way to sum up how we both felt after watching writer / director Rian Johnson’s third movie, the terminally flawed, futuristic sci-fi romp Looper.

Which is sad because I really, really wanted to love this movie.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the film’s protagonist, Joe) is fast becoming one of my favourite actors and even though Bruce Willis (future-Joe) can only play three different characters, he plays those characters so fucking well that I’ll pretty much watch anything he’s in.

I was also intrigued by Rian Johnson’s indie debut, Brick, which was one of the films that first put Gordon-Levitt on the map as a serious actor.

 

 

Throw in a plotline that involves criminal organisations who send the people they want killed back in time to be taken out by specialised assassins called “Loopers” and you’ve got a sure-fire winner right?

Kind of…

My main issue with Looper is that when the plotline is held up to any kind of scrutiny it collapses in on itself so spectacularly that basically nothing in the movie makes any sense whatsoever.

 

 

Simply put, time travel movies either subscribe to the premise that their are a multitude of futures that can exist parallel to one another or there is a singular timeline where actions in the past directly influence actions in the future.

The problem at the core of Looper is that it would have you believe in the singular timeline theory, which makes the whole movie a giant paradox.

Simply put, [MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT AHEAD, SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE AND STILL WANT TO] the premise of the film is that Bruce Willis (old Joe) ironically “creates” the Rainmaker when he goes into the past to find and kill him. This of course makes no sense whatsoever because in old Joe’s original timeline he closes his own loop, so who created the Rainmaker?

 

 

But gigantic plot flaws and glaring paradoxes are pretty much par for the course when it comes to time travel movies so putting those aside, how does the movie hold up otherwise?

To be fair, Gordon-Levitt does an admirable job of portraying a younger Bruce Willis and there are times when his Bruce-Willisness is so spot on it’s scary.

BUT, I found the prosthetics they put on his face to make him look more Bruce-Willisish as clumsy and distracting as the very term “Bruce-Willisish”.

At best, he looks like the love-child of the two actors. At worst, he looks like a ventriloquist doll I see in nightmares sometimes.

 

 

As for the man himself, it’s hard to tell if he’s acting or just being Bruce Willis. Either way, his performance was pretty standard Willis fare – nothing we haven’t seen before or won’t see again.

The film’s third act, most of which takes place on an old farm house owned by Sara Rollins (Emily Blunt) where she lives with her five year old son Cid (Pierce Gagnon) was by far the best part of the film for me and the surprise performances by Blunt and especially Gagnon were one of this film’s saving graces.

 

 

Maybe you will be able to overlook the gigantic paradoxes, multitude of plot holes, Gordon-Levitt’s creepy make-up and the flaccid, goofball performances of Jeff Daniels (Joe’s boss), Paul Dano (Joe’s irritating-as-fuck friend) and Noah Segan (Joe’s comically incompetent arch-nemesis), in which case you’ll probably enjoy the film, but yeah.

That’s a lot of maybes.

Final Verdict: 6/10

-ST

07
Jan
13

Super Escape Monday: Laughter Will Save Us

tumblr_m0rcp2C7zV1qam8b5o1_400Dunno about you guys but holy fuckballs I’m depressed today. Back at the grind, back sitting slumped in front of a laptop from 8.30 – 5.30, Christmas and New Year a distant memory, nothing to look forward to but more indentured servitude.

I had a flippin badass holiday though, stayed right here in the Mother City and did a whole lot of nothing. I hope you guys had a killer holiday too, you deserved one because you are motherflippin’ awesome.

So anyway, to chase the post-holiday blues away I found a whole bunch of funny stuffs to make ya’ll LOLSHYSYPOTSY*!

So let’s kick it off with this gem of a video. Sorry if you’ve seen this one already, it’s the best news reporter fails of 2012.

 

 

Moving right along, here’s some random funny shit courtesy of one of my all-time favourite sites, Fuck Yeah Dementia!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for something completely different: goats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling any better? Little bit? Then my job here is done.

See ya’ll tomorrow for more back to work badassery Winking smile

-ST