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Showing posts with label Vanilla Ice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vanilla Ice. Show all posts
Revisiting Cool As Ice
In 1991, I had a huge poster of Vanilla Ice in my bedroom, and I had BOTH his cassettes (one was a remix album, remember?). Although I don't remember actually liking him that much. My best friend at the time was like, so in love with him, so I guess I was too in solidarity. I actually found him much too aggressive, thuggish, and mean-looking. I much preferred the soft-spoken, polite androgynous Nelson brothers (that's a whole other story).These days, Vanilla (we're on a first name basis) seems to have more of a sense of humor about himself. He appeared on The Surreal Life, a reality show for has-been celebrities, and has even emerged making fun of indie rock. Good for him! If we can't laugh at ourselves, everyone else wins! His website glaringly informed me that he is now taking a foray into home makeover shows. And that he has not changed his website since 1997. Geocities much?
One thing he was DEAD serious about was parlaying his rapping fame into a movie career with the epic love story Cool As Ice. Vanilla plays, well, himself, a nomadic rapper/dancer who falls for a rich Daddy's Girl in a Romeo and Juliet scenario. Oh, and he sings the title song, which features NAOMI CAMPBELL. This is when people still loved her and she wasn't attacking her assistants.
My Favorite MTV Moment: Vanilla Rampage
My now husband and I were home watching some TV one evening back in 1999 and ran across an MTV special that looked kind of entertaining: Top 25 Lame Videos. It was hosted by a group of comedians: baby Jon Stewart, Janeane Garofolo, Denis Leary, and Chris Kattan. The premise was that MTV had fans vote on the cheesiest videos ever aired, the comics would mock them, and then the videos were banned for life (Ha! It's funny that MTV thought they'd continue to play music videos!).
So everything's fine and dandy till they get to video #9, "Ice, Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice (Rob Van Winkle). For this video they went a different route. They invited the man himself to come on and host his segment. So they kind of awkwardly watched the video together; the comedians were polite enough to not rip the video in Rob's presence, then handed him a bat to ceremonially destroy the tape of his video. Well, this is how it went down:
My husband and I looked at each other and said "what just happened?" We kept watching because we were pretty sure that nobody had expected him to go flat out insane on the set like that. Jon had a cut on his hand from the flying debris. Janeane looked genuinely terrified for pretty much the rest of the show; she started chain smoking like crazy. It was such a hilariously weird moment. I've wondered since then if Garofalo starts shaking when she hears that song (or even the opening from "Under Pressure") because she seemed so completely freaked out.
Did anyone else happen to witness this moment?
So everything's fine and dandy till they get to video #9, "Ice, Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice (Rob Van Winkle). For this video they went a different route. They invited the man himself to come on and host his segment. So they kind of awkwardly watched the video together; the comedians were polite enough to not rip the video in Rob's presence, then handed him a bat to ceremonially destroy the tape of his video. Well, this is how it went down:
My husband and I looked at each other and said "what just happened?" We kept watching because we were pretty sure that nobody had expected him to go flat out insane on the set like that. Jon had a cut on his hand from the flying debris. Janeane looked genuinely terrified for pretty much the rest of the show; she started chain smoking like crazy. It was such a hilariously weird moment. I've wondered since then if Garofalo starts shaking when she hears that song (or even the opening from "Under Pressure") because she seemed so completely freaked out.
Did anyone else happen to witness this moment?
Turtle Power!
This made me happy: Nickelodeon is bringing a new version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the small screen! It's set to debut late 2012 (boo! now now!) but an early teaser trailer has been released to whet your appetite.
It looks a little darker than usual. Friends of mine have told me over the years that the graphic novels go kinda dark, which surprised me. I mean, they are teenage turtles who like pizza. How dark can that really get?
But it's no Vanilla Ice, that's for sure.
I really just wanted to post that.
Who's stoked for the return of the turtles? (They're green - does that make me safe today?)
It looks a little darker than usual. Friends of mine have told me over the years that the graphic novels go kinda dark, which surprised me. I mean, they are teenage turtles who like pizza. How dark can that really get?
But it's no Vanilla Ice, that's for sure.
I really just wanted to post that.
Who's stoked for the return of the turtles? (They're green - does that make me safe today?)
Ice, Ice, Baby!
So the other day I'm skimming the entertainment sites and I see something about a guy I haven't thought of in ages - Robert Van Winkle, A.K.A. Vanilla Ice. I guess that a few days ago a video of Rob jumping a car thru fire and into a lake hit the web.
I did some digging to figure out why and here's what I've come up with.
Yes, he does have a new reality type show coming out, but it's not what you'd think. His show is called The Vanilla Ice Project and it will air on the DIY channel. You know, the channel with This Old House. The premise? Ice is rehabbing houses in south Florida, houses that have been foreclosed and need to be remodeled for sale. I guess he's been a handyman for about 15 years now and wants to show off his mad skills.
Yes, he does have a new album coming out, entitled WTF.
However, I read on the internet that the stunt was to promote the show and it seems it's untrue. According to VanillaIce.com, the stunt was part of a benefit to raise money for Make a Wish and Toys for Tots. So that's cool.
When I think of Vanilla Ice, the first thing that leaps to mind is his crazy MTV interview in which Ice trashes the MTV set during the Lamest Videos thing. My husband and I were actually watching this as it aired and were laughing hysterically. I found a long form clip of it - you get a little Electric Youth, an actually kinda funny Chris Kattan (shocking, I know), and then the Vanilla Ice set destruction at the very end.
And that's literally the most I've ever written about Vanilla Ice. Wasn't it nice to see a time in which MTV was kinda funny AND had actual music videos?
I did some digging to figure out why and here's what I've come up with.
Yes, he does have a new reality type show coming out, but it's not what you'd think. His show is called The Vanilla Ice Project and it will air on the DIY channel. You know, the channel with This Old House. The premise? Ice is rehabbing houses in south Florida, houses that have been foreclosed and need to be remodeled for sale. I guess he's been a handyman for about 15 years now and wants to show off his mad skills.
Yes, he does have a new album coming out, entitled WTF.
However, I read on the internet that the stunt was to promote the show and it seems it's untrue. According to VanillaIce.com, the stunt was part of a benefit to raise money for Make a Wish and Toys for Tots. So that's cool.
When I think of Vanilla Ice, the first thing that leaps to mind is his crazy MTV interview in which Ice trashes the MTV set during the Lamest Videos thing. My husband and I were actually watching this as it aired and were laughing hysterically. I found a long form clip of it - you get a little Electric Youth, an actually kinda funny Chris Kattan (shocking, I know), and then the Vanilla Ice set destruction at the very end.
And that's literally the most I've ever written about Vanilla Ice. Wasn't it nice to see a time in which MTV was kinda funny AND had actual music videos?
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