Rockabilly Westworld: Zombie Karaoke Elvis-bot
My friend Eric called me up late the other night from somewhere outside of Barcade, panting breathlessly in the cold. “Dude, don’t go to bed yet,” he said. “I’m bringing something over for you.”
And what a something it was! In its heyday, he looked like this, functioning as an expensive karaoke toy.
More photos after the jump …
This is a photo of my friend Eliza interacting with the Elvis-bot in better times:
I imagine there was either a messy breakup or a drunken kickboxing match, and Elvis-bot here took one right in the grill, then got dumped in the road. The thing is, covered in grime and with part of his face missing, it’s MILLIONS of times cooler than it ever was brand-new. Sure, it took a little trauma and a lot of scarring, but that’s what builds real character in humans and robots alike. This thing exists at the crossroads of all my favorite things: Japanese pop culture, zombies, robots and rock ‘n roll.
I left him on the kitchen table for my sleeping roommate to discover when she woke up at dawn. She said that first she was petrified, thinking that there was a man in the kitchen quietly staring. Then that terror gave way to an entirely different kind of terror when she realized that it wasn’t a man at all, but an Elvis robot with his face half tore off.
Now he sits in a place of honor on my dresser, quietly shedding synthetic hair and freaking the cat out. I still get a little jolt of terror when I get up in the night. It’s delicious, a shot of espresso-flavored freon shooting through my veins.
Of course I took a million photos of it, and I’m not done by a long shot. I distract myself from daydreams of Antarctica by dreaming about getting this guy working again and starting up a band to play in subway tunnels around the world. If any of you guys know where I can get an adapter or the remote control that runs this thing, please let a guy know — I’m dying to get him running again.
Here’s the best of the latest batch of photos:
This one really reminds me of Stephen Blickenstaff’s cover of the Cramps’ “Bad Music for Bad People,” a perfect album if there ever was one:
You can see a Flickr set of these photos and more here. Feel free to download, copy and remix all you like, attribution is all I’m asking for …
January 18th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Oh man, you HAVE to get that thing working and post the video. I sense another BB link coming soon, Jeff.
Where do you want to go in Antarctica? I hear Smith Island is cool; that’s where you can drink beer with all those international scientists going crazy down there.
The duo that’s sailing non-stop for 1,000 days at sea took a trip to Antarctica back in the ’80s. Here’s the video.
January 19th, 2008 at 5:14 am
[...] Ο Elvis αυτός ήταν ένα karaoke ανδροϊδές που “ζούσε” σαν αξιοθέατο σε ένα μαγαζί με παιχνίδια. Ο blogger andiamnotlying γυρνώντας μια μέρα στ σπίτι του τον βρήκε πεταμένο σε κάτι σκουπίδια. Αποφάσισε να τον μαζέψει και να τον περιποιηθεί, όπως αρμόζει σε έναν πραγματικό βασιλιά. Προς το παρόν του λείπουν κάποια σημαντικά κομμάτια αλλά όλοι ελπίζουν πως σύντομα ο Elvis – zombie Θα μπορέσει να ξεπεράσει τα μικρά προβλήματα και να απoκτήσει και πάλι τη λάμψη του! Δείτε περισσότερες φωτογραφίες και λεπτομέρειες για το εύρημα εδώ [...]
January 20th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Love the last one, man!
P.S. Nice new specs!
January 21st, 2008 at 8:09 pm
“Where do you want to go in Antarctica?”
Dammit, you never respond to your commenters any more like you used to.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Lonnie,
Something’s up — I haven’t been getting e-mails from WP telling me that I have comments anymore. All I get are spam alerts, and find out days later that trusted friends (like yourself) have left notes.
Also, the traffic on this thing went APESHIT over the weekend, so I got tons of spam, too. Sorry to leave you hanging like that.
I keep dreaming of working at McMurdo Station, basically. Something like John Carpenter’s The Thing, minus the killing and shapeshifting.
January 24th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
[...] Here’s a picture which shows you the best, as Jeff Simmeron calls it, Rockabilly Westworld. [...]
January 25th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Barcade.
The ONLY good thing to ever come out of the hipster self-gratification experiment that is Williamsburg.
K, that and The Lounge…because a free pizza with every beer means I don’t drink anywhere else.
Except Barcade. This comment just got recursive.
July 21st, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I would like to invite Zombie Karaoke Elvis-Bot to my Zombie Survival night.
Could he be enticed with a blood orange martini or two?