Sesame Street Turns 40

The UniBrain Presents:
Sesame Street WeekIf you have visited Google over the past week you will be aware that its main page has been taken over by the characters of Sesame Street, in honour of the seminal kids show's 40th anniversary. I didn't even know people still used the main page - don't they use Google toolbar? Come on people! - but I have had to check it out every day to share in the awsomeness.
Like most people born in the past 40 years, Sesame Street played a huge part in my young life (and, let's be honest, beyond). It is fair to say I was quite obsessed. My first concert was Sesame Street Live In Concert (although as far as "live" goes, I have a feeling they may have have pre-dated Britney in the old miming department), and I had several of the brilliant albums featuring songs from the show (more on that to come!). I just remembered being most offended when some "big kids" on the bus once asked me if I had gone to see Follow That Bird (Big Bird's feature film debut) and I was all "I'M NOT A BABY!" Turns out I was five. Huh, go figure (and, yes, of course I had seen it). Below you'll find some of my all-time favourite moments from the show (that I could find).In my research I have found out several startling things, such as the fact that Herry Monster, who is like family I never visit, has not been seen in the street since 2004! 2004! BRING BACK HERRY!Wait, it gets even worse; Barkley the dog - giant, orange, and endlessly confusing to me as he was much larger than any dog I had ever seen before - has "rarely" been seen since the late '90s! HE IS THE BEST DOG IN THE WORLD (RIP Bouncer) BRING BACK BARKLEY! (I also found out that Barkley was originally called Woov-Woov, but Gordon decided to change his name one day. "I don't like it," he said to Bob of the doggy's name, and then just changed it. Whatever, he's always been Barkley to me)

Anyway, enjoy now some classic Sesame moments. In this special birthday week, we will be bringing you EVEN MORE Sesame Street, because let's face it, you can never have enough.

This first clip is from what I have been assured was a woeful 1978 Sesame Street Christmas Special. But never mind that, Michael Jackson meets Oscar The Grouch!



A moment that just blew my mind was when C3PO and R2D2 visited Sesame Street. As I was obsessed with Star Wars and Sesame at the time, it was like Christmas. In this rare clip we get to meet R2's Earth girlfriend.


One of the all-time most powerful Sesame Street moments was when Mr Hooper died. Will Lee, who played the street's wise shop keeper, had died in 1982 and the following season it was decided it should be written in to teach kids about death. He was pretty much the first person I knew who had died so it was pretty shocking when Big Bird was told the news. I may have gotten some pesky dust in my eyes when I watched this again. (Even though the way they keep saying "death" and "dead" all the time - in true Sesame style - is creepy). It also occured to me while watching that I think Gordon and Susan are my black parents. Watching them immediately makes me feel calm and looked after. (Maria, on the other hand, I thought I would one day marry)


The classic '70s/'80s closing credits feature Barkley playing in Central Park with a group of kids. I could never work out how they hid from him behind that tree!


Scott Keenan
BRING BACK BARKLEY! o'clock

THE TOP 5 NEW VIDEOS! (yes, including that JK wedding entrance!)

From The Vault

Here's The 'Brain's Top 5 YouTube videos from the week that was...

1. Katie Holmes much-hyped performance on SYTYCD. It's OK and everything but somehow it makes her seem MORE robotic not less. There's a whole lot of waffle so tune in at about the two minute mark to catch the lip-synching fun.



2. Someone was certainly thinkin' at Comic-Con and remembered to record the two sneak peeks of the Twilight sequel, New Moon. Given the situation, it's better quality than you'd think (aside from the understandable squealing at the mere sight of Robert Pattinson's face)...




3. Have you ever wondered what happened to Jake Lloyd - you know the kid that played the young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace? No, me neither. However, this is what he looks like now and it's also worth a listen since he's understandably pretty bitter and twisted.



4. Hot on the heels of a series of cool stills, the official Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland trailer finally hit the interwebs. Looks *amazing*!



5. I'll leave you on the *GREAT* video from the wedding of Jill and Kevin Heinz in case you're one of the few people left on Earth that hasn't seen it since it started doing the rounds about a week ago... if that's the case, I strongly suggest you do cos it's just about the best 5 minutes you'll have all weekend (incidentally, the song is "Forever" by Chris Brown - and it's the greatest publicity CB could hope for given the current climate - and he didn't even have to do anything!). Enjoy... seriously:




LOVE. IT.

--
Carolyn Stewart
It's gonna be me, you and the dance floor o'clock, July 25, 2009

REVIEW: Star Trek

The all-new less nerdy "Motion Picture"
What is it?: The all-new reimagining of the original Star Trek series via super genius JJ Abrams!! Let’s face it, Star Trek had become a bloated mess with so many spin-offs that only the die-hards cared (cue angry e-mails), and studios much prefer their franchises to make them cash. Cue re-boot! Yes, they’re all younger, hotter and funnier than before! Just as nerdy, it must be said. But not in such a way that will scare away the masses, which is a nice change.
Leonard Nimoy is in it?: Yes, the old Spock plays a future version of the new Spock (Zachary Quinto), accidentally sucked into a black hole. I found the whole premise a bit distracting, but I had almost forgiven them by the end. It handily washed away the previous series as an “alternate reality”, you know, where Kirk is fat and hammy, the aliens look like rubber and the technology sucks.

Who else?: Chris Pine, who was in Just My Luck with Lindsay Lohan and McFly, plays the new Captain Kirk, and is pretty damn awesome. Even more awesome (almost) is that his dad George is played by “our” Chris Hemsworth. The former Home and Away star impresses with his minimal screen time. From me annoying him at the pub to this – don’t say I don’t make massive Hollywood careers!
Rounding out the cast are John Cho from Harold and Kumar as Sulu, Anton Yelchin (Byrd from Huff) as Chekov, Simon Pegg (Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead) as Scotty, Karl Urban doing his best work since Shortland Street as Bones and Zoë Saldaña as Uhura – mercifully finding herself another franchise after mysteriously disappearing from The Pirates Of The Carribean. Tyler “Madea” Perry also has a surprise role as the head of Star Fleet and Eric Bana plays the baddie Nero (who, it should be noted, is no Poida).

The Space Wiggles?
Anton, Chris, Simon, Karl, John and Zoë

WINONA RYDER!: Winny takes a break from getting hopped up on meds and stealing jackets from Saks to play Spock’s mother. It’s funny, they can beam people from place to place, but they still can’t do realistic old people make-up.
Is it the new Star Wars?: Let’s see, we meet James T. Kirk, who lives in the shadow of his late father, a Star Fleet captain, in small town Iowa (or “Tatooine”). Then one day he meets no-nonsense Uhura (or “Leia”) at a bar (or “Mos Isley Cantina”) and is soon convinced by Captain Pike (or “Obi-Wan Kenobi”) to join Star Fleet (or “the Rebel Alliance”) himself. Later Kirk gets stuck on an ice planet (or “Hoth”) and is attacked by a snow beast (or “Wampa”). That aside, I wish JJ had done the Star Wars prequels.

Sadly I couldn't find a pic of Chris Hemsworth in character, so this one of him at the pub will have to do.

Has it saved the franchise?: Oh yes. Look, I watched Star Trek as a kid and was never a big fan. Even as a seven-year-old it seemed crappy. Remember the movie where they come back to Earth - in the '80s - to save the whales (or something)? WHAT?! Of course I have since come to appreciate things such as the first real multi-racial cast on TV (Is there even a cast that diverse on TV now? I mean, Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t have a Scot or a Russian), but it is still boring (sorry nerds). But not any more! I will quite happily sit through the sequels. Hell, I’ll even look forward to them.
See it?: You probably need to.

Scott Keenan
It's life Jim but not as we know it o'clock