Obligatory Wild Thing Video

In the memory of Reg Presley please enjoy enjoy this original video for Wild Thing in all its glory.

Jingle Dogs Reunion Show

You have seen their hit video now see their reunion show. Age has not been kind to the Jingle Dogs.

Mad Men Grunge

In 2005 Paul Anka did an album of rock covers given jazz standards treatment, Rock Swings. This cover is more startling different than many of the covers on this album. Nirvana's fast/slow loud/quiet dynamics that so much of the song's appeal is not carried over to this cover. Instead, the lyrics have power for being comprehensible,

From a link in a post containing weird Nixon posters, "Apart from the Nixon interlude, I did intend to post this from a world where rock music never developed..." in the thread Things that look like alternate history but aren't IIa on AH.com.

The End of Piano-Industrial Complex

In a Ken Burns documentary, I forget which, there was a reference to how in the late 19th century more American homes had pianos then indoor plumbing. They were aspirational object that signaled one's arrival into middle class gentility. In the TV documentary The 1900 House a piano was installed in to the parlor. A Globe & Mail story a few years back profiled a family of recent Chinese immigrants. The father was an engineer, now a factory foreman. They lived in a cramped basement apartment, with a piano but no TV. Piano sales are up in China.

Today is different. The above image is from a BBC report of a London piano restorer, Will your piano end up in the dump? The piano being dissembled was made in London's former piano district.  It was judged and found wanting. Its parts well go on to other uses, other pianos. The Image below, Elergy, is from a show The Piano as Art, by Penny Putnam and Shauna Holiman.

The newer cultural artifact of our age is the TV. Soon there won't be any cathode ray tube televisions left, there will be hauled away as trash. The factories that made them are also gone.

Here is an example of a new player piano system that can also replicate a full range of volume, from piano to forte. Looking at through the site of the people who created the modern player piano industry suffers from proprietary and shifting technological standards.

Cats, the Internet and K-Pop

The entire Internet is losing its hive mind for K-Pop genius Psy and his breakout hit, "Gangnam Style."

Noisey, Music Column for Vice Magazine, 

introducing a video of cats

 listening to Gangnam Style,

 Do Cute Cats Like Gangnam Style? - You Review.

Gandalf Style

For an explanation of how Korean Pop music is more music video and TV orientated listen to this NPR story, Gangnam Style: Three Reasons K-Pop Is Taking Over The World.

I Don't Want To Set the World on Fire After the World Burns

Somehow I have ended up on the song "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire". I previously came across this song in the short Logorama. It was the song I needed to hear today. There are several straight version of this song on youtube, one of which is the just a shot of the 78 rpm record going a round and around. The version below is from the game Fallout 3. Anything involving nuclear war is not going to be positive.

2000 Light Years From Home - On The Reduction Campaign

To see more of these levels in Alien Swarm go to Reduction: The Bug-War-On-Earth Sci-Fi Game Campaign.

God's Eye View of the Universe.

To move across the milky way would take light 40,000 years, and this video spans the distance of a galaxy in a millisecond or two. So, 40,000 years is 14,610,000 days, is 350,640,000 hours, is 21,038,400,000 minutes, is 1,262,304,000,000 seconds, is 1,262,304,000,000,000 milliseconds. If we say that that the "camera" in this video is spanning the distance of a milky-way sized galaxy in 1 millisecond, then it's travelling at 1,262,304,000,000,000 times the speed of light. VERY rough estimate.

Nic Foster, explaining
what we are seeing
in the comments section of this video
on YouTube.

Explanation of this video/simulation/animation from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, The First Public Data Release from BOSS, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey .  

This video seems to be part of the Total Perspective Vortex as makes galaxies appear as meaningless specks of light. That is the view of the egoist needing validation of the universe. This animation makes your sized galaxy feel small and weak.

I Got Young Ears

Created by Oatmeal

Maybe this why I can't stand the music liked by young people.

Cover of Civilaztion IV Theme

I Love the Whole World

This TV ad for the Discovery Channel is an adaption of an old campfire song.

Here are the lyrics that someone has transcribed.

I love the mountains
I love the great clear skies
I love big bridges
I love how great whites fly
I love the whole world and all its sights and sounds
boombiada boombiada boombiada boombiada boombiada
I love the ocean
I love real dirty things
I love to go fast
I love Egyptian kings
I love the whole world and all its craziness
boombiada "" "" ""
I love tornadoes
I love arachnids
I love hot magma
I love the giant squid
I love the whole world its such a brilliant place
boombiada '''''''' (forever)

(from a link on Adfreak)

Update

The original video disappeared, the new one is twice as long. The lyrics above now only apply to the first half of the video.

Looking Back on Bohemian New York

It [early '70's New York] must have seemed that absolutely anything was possible.

Donald Macleod

Well, that's true. Most everything was possible, except making a living. And we couldn't figure out how to do that.

Phillip Glass

Interview On BBC Radio  3 

Composer of the Week

20 Mar 2012

 

Flying Robot Musicians

Three years ago I came across a video of Mario's Theme done with beer bottles and a R/C car. The music was "programed" by varying the spacing and liquid level of the bottles. In the above case it was created by programing robot quadrotors to interact with modified musical instruments. Bond's and Mario themes have seeped into pop culture's unconscious so need no introduction.

Rick Santorum Promotes Heavy Metal to Today's Teens

News reports, actually one blogger,  have him denouncing heavy metal as "satanic".  He goes on to condemn "new' bands such as Black Sabbath (founded 1969). This is probably satire, highly plausible satire. However Santorum (NSFW) is known for taking extreme positions. 

This is the best thing that has happened to Heavy Metal for a long time.

A Groovy Warning of Nuclear War

Link from Orville Third on AH.com's Things that look like alternate history, but aren't.

Dexter Inspired Music Video

Here is a music video inspired by the TV series Dexter. What I find interesting is that it depicts all of Dexter's "ritual". In this context "ritual" is a criminology term to describe way a common pattern that a murderer may show, (here for more details on ritual murder). I was looking for the teaser for the upcoming season and happened upon this and a lot less well crafted pieces of fan art. I like Dexter but some of the other fans have produced "art" that only functions as mental health diagnoses.

Bad taste can be a serious matter.

Musicians and Debt

It looked like the kind of music emporium which doubles as a pawnshop, since every musician has at some time in his life has to hand over his instrument if he wants to eat and sleep indoors.

Soul Music, Terry Pratchett

See also Ray's Music Exchange in the Blues Brothers

Fuck Xmas - Eric Idle

Real Steam Punk or Steam Powered Punk

From a link from Elidor on AH.com's Things that look like Alternate History but Aren't thread.