Fred Thompson announced today that he is dropping out of the race for President, after finishing a distant 45345th in the South Carolina primary, behind Mickey Mouse, Ron Paul, Pope John Paul, and John Paul Jones among others. Lucky for us though, his campaign will forever be remembered for leaving us possibly the most annoying YouTube video EVAR. Seriously, try to watch the whole thing. I dare you. I was gonna make a joke about “Heath Ledger tried to watch it earlier today” but then I thought that might be in bad taste, and here at Synthesis, we don’t do bad taste.

Remember when Eddie Murphy could act on screen? Barring his efforts in animation (namely Shrek), the one time star of Saturday Night Live, Beverly Hills Cop and Coming To America seems to fall further and further from the tree of comedic respect. With the release of this year’s Razzie nominations–the annual bash of Hollywood’s worst–Eddie Murphy is the leader in the clubhouse with five individual nominations for Norbit. Yes, Murphy did achieve recent success for his work in Dreamgirls, but a look back at his recent track record provides ample room for criticism. Gone are the days of Delirious and “Hot Tub,” abundant are the likes of Daddy Day Care and The Haunted Mansion. I don’t know about you guys, but I liked the old Eddie. Take me back to Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood.

Besides just making up fries, roasts, kisses and ticklers, the French also make badass AIDS ads with dudes fucking scorpions and bitches getting their boxed mowed by spiders.

France also has nuclear weapons, thus qualifying them to costar in the funniest YouTube clip I’ve seen since lunch:

Maybe I’ll get around to chiming in on Julie Abra Fischer or EMI cutting 1/3 of its workforce later. I have something even better to tell you about.

Element 115 from Phoenix, AZ. Holy wow.

First, a little background on our Band You’ve Never Heard of Band of the Day. We Synthesis folks have a SonicBids account, and bands hit us in hopes of us writing about them on our blog or in our magazine. Most of these bands are pretty terrible. Real shitty. Shitty, shitty, shitty. Just plain awful. There are some fairly decent bands too, but most of them are only barely so. It’s mostly stinky poo-poos. But, then there are the bands who are really doing something…er, different…who capture the imagination of we bloggers, and rise from among the soiled ranks and into our hearts. Element 115 is one of those bands, and for God’s sake I hope they take that quote and put it at the top of their damn bio.

You should of course have been listening to Element 115 from the link at the top of the page this whole time. If you’re not, please open another window and do so now.

See? Holy wow!

Here’s the rundown:
1. Classic rock style band with original classic rock songs. About cars and aliens.
2. Band leader “Michael” belts out hair-raising hair-rock howls like woah.
3. Their drummer is an alien being that plays with the band live via interstellar video conferencing.
4. Read that last bit again.
5. In full support of Ron Paul (god bless them).
6. Headset mics.
7. No full songs on their page, just clips (no one rides for free…)
8. Dude’s rocking a Gibson Explorer. LEGIT.
9. Bring their own light and stage show.
10. “the band GUARANTEES a memorable event when they play.”
11. LISTEN TO THAT ROCK! FUCKING FUCK!

I’m really honestly confused right now. I am caught between ridiculing this band and genuinely appreciating their cheese factor. Is this infatuation ironic or genuine? I’m not sure! As I’ve been listening to them for an hour straight I imagine I must actually like this band, and God help me. The amount of work that has gone into this band is seriously staggering. It’s just the music is the most mind boggling mix of pop metal and prog-rock, and I bet they have no idea how funny and awesome it is.

I kinda want to join this band.

Seriously out of this world.

Below the jump you will fine the real-time, non edited AIM conversation between me and Editorial Director James Barone about Element 115.

(more…)

For all the achievers participating in the right-wing hate in our award-winning Ron Paul post: Relax, man. Mix yourself a white Russian. Maybe smoke a little reefer, and take a breather from all the negativity, man. Let’s just have this little moment together and re-live our favorite scenes from The Big Lebowski.

Remember, the 7th annual Lebowski Fest is happening once again in Louisville, KY on July 11th and 12th. Lebowski Fest in Chicago (March 7th to 9th) is sold out.

Some Lebowski Merch:
This isn’t ‘Nam Smokey. It’s Bowling. There are Rules.

I’m a A Lebowski, You’re A Lebowski


You see what happens?

In response to today’s widely circulated New Republic story on Ron Paul’s past missteps in the editorial realm, the Ron Paul 2008 grassroots support has taken evasive action. And before you shoot the messenger (or if you’re just looking for some lulz) you can find this and other swell Ron Paul related campaign materials at the web’s finest forum for Political Discourse, Encylopedia Dramatica.