JG supplied me with this great link to a supposed "leak" of a bit of The Simpsons Halloween special for this year…which will air right before election day…lots of great gags in here, writing is top notch…
this month’s banner is from a cam phone pic sent to me by my sister…dunno where it is (subway somewheres) but I feel it calling out to me…and yes, I think it is true…
Sure, last night’s debate was fine, but I was hoping it would be more like this:
Brought to you by Kung Fu Election, which will eat up your Friday ‘cuz it’s so darn fun…mentioned on metafilter…as they say there, "in the future, all elections will be decided like this"…
the Washington Mall reflecting pool of blood is a particularly nice touch; also the evil voice at the end that whispers menacingly who wins…
I don’t know what to think of Ratatat. On the one hand, great band name, and great use of 2-person instrumentation limitations, like The Kills, Morphine or The White Stripes. On the other hand, I don’t ever listen to their stuff more than once. For that one time, I kind of like it, but I don’t need it again.
This video, though, for "Shempi", is both strangely weird and weirdly strange. A sort of simple technique that is very effective in making things seem dreamlike and odd.
As far modern rock-ish psychedelia, I much prefer this video from Marnie Stern, "Transformer". Not only is she a knockout guitar player, but the video is sharp too. Culled from Fluxtumblr, who posts a million videos that don’t do anything for me, and every now and then posts one that knocks my socks off.
I don’t know what NHTVSN stands for (anyone?) but it’s a pretty great hip-hop online magazine/blog. The most recent post features a video of DJ Clark Kent — who I had never heard of — the guy who discovered Jay Z and is apparently responsible for a bunch of classic tracks. The video is really entertaining and it’s only part one, so check it out at your leisure. I cut it down to what I think is the best bit, about Jay Z. Check it out…
Unhappy bear
so rare that the Norse gods are invoked, let alone on network tv in 2003…
I think the post title says it all. He was going approx 120 mph.
So NYT has this music blog where people like Andrew Bird and Peter Holsapple write about songwriting and being a musician. Pretty neat. I got there from waxy, who links to a fun and well-written entry by Suzanne Vega about writing "Tom’s Diner", being remixed, and having her voice be the test audio for the invention of the mp3(!). Cool stuff. My favorite bit is where she writes about all the remixes of Tom’s Diner she’s received over the years, and when she put out a compilation of some of her favorites:
"However, it was a logistical nightmare to administrate. I had to go back to all the people who had taken the song without permission, and ask their permission . . . to use their version of my song! This is the main reason we have not put out “Tom’s Albums” 2 and 3, which we certainly could, as now we are up to almost 30 remixes including (really good) ones from Danger Mouse and Tupac."
Tupac?!
That’s got Billboard #1 written all over it.
UPDATE
Hmmm, well the track was apparently released last year — youtube embed below — and I need to revise my predictions of #1 greatness. Vega is a little off when she calls it a remix — it’s more like a re-interpretation. The youtube comments on the various postings of this track are all over the map, with some fans saying it’s the "best soft pac ever" and others doubting it’s even him. It’s apparently a new(ish) track that showed up on The Best Of 2Pac Part 2: Life, a double CD set retrospective that came out last December (that allmusic calls "of poor quality", "hastily or indifferently assembled" and "another in a long line of posthumous cash-ins apparently overseen by 2Pac’s mother"). Sounds kind of weak to me.
Warren Ellis has an interesting post linking to this article that links to a new report. (this info is moving moving moving!) Anyway, it’s about permafrost melt releasing giant chimneys of methane. From the quote of the quote:
"In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.
They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years.
Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane."
As always though, Ellis puts it more succinctly:
"Should all concerns be confirmed, it appears that we’re all going to die from the escape of monstrous planetary farts from beyond history."
I wasn’t sure whether to post this or not but people told me they wanted to see it, so here it is. When we went out to OR last July, I was the best man at Roscoe’s wedding. This is my speech.
Best Man Speech from Vivid Wedding Films on Vimeo.
In the absence of faith, what stands behind a currency based on faith?
Interesting Op-Ed from the NYT about the financial implications of the fact that the dollar moved off the gold standard ages ago and has never looked back. MattD and I were talking about this just last night (over Frito pie) and using the rhetoric of barstool philosophers to maintain that, as Speed Levitch has said, "this is outrageousness and it cannot last."
First, MDvto sent me this great Quincy theme tune…
Then, while hunting for that basketball vid from below, I checked the history of this browser and searched keyword "youtube." There were a bunch of interesting vids that never made it to the blog…here they are, random and youtubey. Individually they didn’t seem to warrant a post, but collectively, it’s some pretty good stuff…
Editor Explains Editing a Crappy movie, pt 1
Editor Explains Editing a Crappy movie, pt 2
Hi-Fructose Corn Syrup Association makes HFCS Promo
Bill Maher Nose Broken Accidentally by Erik Estrada in 90’s Game Show
(jump to 2:50 in so you don’t have to watch all that game show)
Kevin Smith Berates a Geek at a Comic Convention
Soulja Boy Reviews An Esoteric Video Game
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