This is a periodical I haven’t mentioned before. Wholphin is a “DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short Films.” So yes, the reason I hadn’t mentioned it is because it is a DVD and not a book. However, as I have been watching Vols 1-8 over the last few months, I have noticed that a few writerly names keep cropping up in the credits. Plus, it’s got that whole McSweeney’s connection.
So lets look at some of the folks who have turned up on these videos:
- Spike Jonze with an amazing documentary about Al Gore (that will make you weep all over again about the 2000 election).
- Miranda July with a short film.
- David O. Russell (with a post-Three Kings documentary).
- Bob Odenkirk has several entries on several DVDs
- A short film by Taika Waititi who did the crazy New Zealand film Eagle vs Shark.
- There’s a Japanese version of Bewitched with bonus subtitles by Daniel Handler (among others).
- Daniel Handler also “revoices” a short film Darling Darling starring Michael Cera and a horse-headed man. (John Cleese does another “revoicing”).
- Michael Chabon’s short story “House Hunting” adapted as a film (starring Paul Rudd and Zooey Deschanel).
- Evany Thomas (and others) rescripted the subtitles to Schastlivy Vmeste the Russian Married…With Children. And hers is extremely enjoyable. She gives up on the show about ten minutes in and then just starts riffing on all manner of things. I laughed harder at this than I had any right to.
- “New Boy” is adapted from a Roddy Doyle short story.
- “Love You More” an adaptation of the short story “Peter Shelly” by Patrick Marber.
- “The Discipline of De” is adapted from a William S. Burroughs short story.
There is also (from Vol #1) my favorite short 
film possibly ever by Scott Prendergast called “The Delicious” which you can watch, and I encourage you to, here.
Although “Stairway at St. Paul” is also awesome, and that’s available here.)
There’s also “Heavy Metal Jr.” a great documentary of a metal band made up of pre-teens–available here.
Oh wait, and there’s an amazing documentary about Rubik’s Cube that will blow your mind (if you haven’t played with a cube in a decade), called “Piece by Piece.”
Oh yeah, and “Sour Death Balls” is hilarious and available here.
Even though these films are available online, it would be best to purchase the DVDs from here at http://www.wholphindvd.com. There’s even a Best of, which features most of the films I mentioned above. In fact, you should just subscribe, because that will guarantee that they keep releasing these gems on video.
In addition to the random assortment above there are international animations, short nature films, 45 minutes movies, and everything in between. It’s a wonderful way to see short films that you never knew existed.
SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Spectres (1977).
Let’s face it, Blue Öyster Cult are silly. If I didn’t know better I would swear that Spinal Tap is a takeoff on them. And yet, they have such well regarded people associated with them: Patti Smith; Michael Moorcock! I first got into BOC because of MTV. Back when MTV first came out they played videos by basically anyone who had a video. And it seemed that at the time it was mostly new wave and metal bands. And naturally, we metal heads embraced all of the metal videos and scoffed at the new wave ones. But it was through MTV that I found out about some of the best metal bands around: Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Blue Öyster Cult to name just a couple. And it was through MTV that I got Fire of Unknown Origin, my favorite BOC record. Several years later when I got to college my roommate was a huge Rush and BOC fan. He got me into BOC in a big way, and even though I know they’re silly, I still love ’em. And this album is a pretty strong classic.
I Just Read About That... 