Scot

Playing in Space

2012-01-26T01:43:00.008-05:00

Two amazing 17 year-olds from Toronto, Matthew Ho and Asad Muhammad, sent a balloon with a camera and a legoman into space and captured stunning images of the planet, sun, and moon. And remarkably, they manage to retrieve the unit only a couple of hours away in nearby Peterborough.

Absolutely incredible. The images remind me of the time-lapse video of images from the International Space Station.

Some variations on performers and audiences

2012-01-13T03:35:00.011-05:00

Though it has been around from at least the 13th century, the concept of the one-man band is still something of a novelty, especially when performed as well as this:

One person playing four or five instruments isn't completely unfamiliar, but I'm not sure the reverse is true. Canadian band Walk off the Earth, with Creepshow's Sarah Blackwood, experimented by trying five people on one instrument. Covering Gotye and Kimbra's 'Somebody that I Used to Know,' the quintet gives an incredible performance where both the song and video are as intriguing as the original.

Another cover, this time performed by last century computers. Featuring oscilloscopes and an old HP scanner, YouTube user bd594 creates a disturbingly perfect rendition of the Animals' 'House of the Rising Sun.'

As any musician with a pet will agree, finding an animal audience can be difficult. The sounds and patterns that we prefer are not shared with too many other animals. The beluga whale may indeed be one of the few.

An Earth-space duet? It's amazing how International Space Station astronaut Cady Coleman and Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson make such a remarkable event look like it's something they do all the time.

As a music store employee, one is audience to countless performances from a wide array of musicians, tuneful and otherwise.

Friday Night Videos

2011-10-07T01:12:00.004-04:00

Haight-Ashbury

One of the most popular music scenes of all time, it was during the 'Summer of Love' in 1967 that this unexceptional San Francisco intersection would emerge as a cultural landmark. More than a goldmine of terrific art and counter-culture, it defined an entire movement and became the permanent mecca for hippies, beatniks, bohemians, and all their imitators. Crazy politics aside, psychedelic rock still remains among the most sentimental and listened to genres of modern popular music.

Haight-Ashbury's prime messengers, the Grateful Dead, would for the next three decades unwittingly provide the template for everything hippy. Their tours were psychedelic carnivals that provided a religious rite of passage for those who would come to be known as Deadheads. It was Jerry Garcia's death in 1996 that finally laid rest to one of music's most unique followings.

Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" were the twin themes from the summer of 1967 and terrific samples of two different psychedelic styles. The adrenaline rush of "Somebody to Love" was the up tempo blues-rock sound that had become popular in America and the U.K., while "White Rabbit" was the ultimate acid trip, less a traditionally structured song and more of a hypnotic two minute trance.

Getting their start as the house band at the legendary Avalon Ballroom in 1966, Big Brother and the Holding Company would later that year team up with a young Janis Joplin, launching her into one of the 60's most memorable icons.

Two lesser known bands from the scene: Blue Cheer (named after a brand of LSD) with "Summertime Blues" and Moby Grape (named after a joke involving a purple whale) with "Hey Grandma."

Quicksilver Messenger Service with "Fresh Air," live at another seminal San Francisco concert hall, The Fillmore.

Fun with trailers

2011-03-27T22:36:00.019-04:00

With the less than inspiring fare from Hollywood the past decade, coupled with the ubiquity of homemade and indie videos, it's no surprise that trailers and mini-movies have become as entertaining as traditional cinema. My favorites are those not attached to any actual full length movie.

I became a fan of movie-less trailers last year when I saw Kevin Tancharoen's Rebirth, the latest film treatment of the popular Mortal Kombat video game. The ten minute flick, starring Jeri Ryan and Michael Jai White, was originally intended as a movie pitch but now looks like it will evolve into an internet mini-series.

Riverdale, but not quite how the Archie comics depicted it. An exceptional low-budget indie collaborative project, this fictional trailer brings a chilling realism to the high school adventures of Archie Andrews and his gang. Vestal virgin Betty Cooper impregnated, Dilton Doiley out for blood, Reggie coked-up, and Jughead's gay crush on Archie are among the treats in the too-short four minute clip.

Not all trailers need be drama. This fun romp, based on Kevin David Anderson's book Night of the Living Trekkies, has a Star Trek convention besieged by a zombie attack. Though geeks irl are still wondering what took so long for the merger to happen, the attention to detail of the various Star Trek species certainly makes up for it.

With an all-star cast including 'Sir' Todd Bridges, Sean Patrick Flanery, Tricia Helfer, and Las Teclas de Negro, the Black Keys' music video for "Howlin' For You" is another cool fictional trailer clamoring to be made into a full length movie.

Cold War Nostalgia

2011-03-21T23:48:00.013-04:00

photo source

The articles on American culture you often see in Pravda often have a humorously delusional bent to them, though not quite on par with the insane paranoia that comes from Arab media. Russian media is often gentler in its condemnation, and occasionally they have interesting perceptions:

Americans smile all the time as if they are plugged in

The social role of politeness in Russia is extremely low. Unwelcoming service has become one of the manifestations of this public flaw in the country. Muscovites are considered those who smile least among the residents of other Russian cities. A poll conducted by ROMIR Monitoring showed that 88 percent of Russians slam Muscovites for their rudeness.

Well, losing does suck.

Behind things

2011-03-11T23:29:00.023-05:00

Playfully visualizing the back of webpages gives a unique, three-dimensional perspective to what we are familiar with as strictly two-dimensional entities:

Backofwebpage.com is a user submitted site that creatively explores what the back of popular websites could look like. It reminded me of an art project, or movement, I had seen a few years ago where people leave alternate paintings and drawings behind the generic art that 'decorates' hotel rooms. Secret Wall Tattoos has a gallery of over a hundred examples of this unique form of renegade art.

And of course the scenery behind you:

Aging

2011-03-02T23:13:00.027-05:00

I came across a unique video of a hundred people, age one to one hundred, arranged from youngest to oldest:

Titled "Age," the video is actually the first of a four part series from Lenka Clayton and James Price called People in Order. Made in the U.K. during the mid 00's, each film arranges people in very simple, though very interesting, ways. The second video, "Birth," has 34 women in order of weeks of pregnancy; the third, "Love," 48 couples from the longest relationship to the shortest. The last video, "Home," breaks the chronological trend and instead orders people by annual income, 73 households from £400000 to £3240:

I have had a mournful interest in this British introspection since I became a fan of Michael Apted's fascinating Up series. Started by Paul Almond in 1964, the recurring documentary has followed the lives of fourteen people from age seven, checking in with those willing every seven years.

photo source

The pains and loses of aging that are so visible in these projects is the dying reflection of subjects giving the British Empire's final breaths.

Friday Night Videos

2011-02-25T23:24:00.030-05:00

David Lynch soundtrack side A

One of Hollywood's most unique filmmakers, his name has become synonymous with modern cinematic surrealism. His first three major films (Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, and Dune) presented a sporadic, though brilliant mind with a particular fondness for the dreamy and bizarre. He is the rare sort of artist that appeals to both cult and mainstream audiences, and sometimes neither.

It wasn't until his 1986 release Blue Velvet that he found his voice. His embrace of pop music, used in wonderful juxtapositions, would be a common theme in his later work. Blue Velvet was partly inspired by the dark elements Lynch heard in Bobby Vinton's early 60's hit.

Even more chilling was his use of Roy Orbison's "In Dreams."

Long time Lynch music collaborators producer Angelo Badalamenti and singer Julee Cruise with the ethereal "Mysteries of Love."

If David Lynch himself had a personal theme, it could be nothing more than the first few seconds of Julee Cruise's "Falling." He did after all write the lyrics to the song. Another Badalamenti-Cruise project, the Grammy Award winning Twin Peaks theme became more popular than the short lived TV series.

The light and breezy "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart."

One of Lynch's most diverse uses of music was in his 1990 film "Wild at Heart." Thrash, pop, big band, rockabilly, cool jazz - all here with nothing out of place. The sunny, optimistic sounds of Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" that introduces the movie quickly gives way to one of Lynch's all time most gruesome scenes.

Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" was the perfect theme for the movie, a haunting rockabilly ballad that perfectly channelled the 50's crooning Elvis in Nicolas Cage's 'Sailor Ripley' character.

Record industry vs music industry

2011-02-21T19:21:00.044-05:00

A telling chart showing U.S. album sales per capita:

Business Insider has a series of graphs that are perfect indicators of where the record industry currently stands, or rather, crouches in terminal agony. This data is nothing that wasn't easily predicted over ten years ago, even before the days of Napster, when the record industry had already fallen into its own quagmire of decadence and greed. Having long ago lost all purpose of its mission, it has began lashing out:

Music exec slams Grammys in full-page NY Times ad

Steve Stoute's open letter to Grammy organizers ripped the organization and its 12,000-odd voters for snubbing Eminem and Justin Bieber at this year's ceremony, as well as Eminem and Kanye West at past events.

"Over the course of my 20-year history as an executive in the music business and as the owner of a firm that specializes in in-culture advertising, I have come to the conclusion that the Grammy Awards have clearly lost touch with contemporary popular culture," wrote Stoute, who is currently CEO of the marketing company Translation.

"Unfortunately, the awards show has become a series of hypocrisies and contradictions, leaving me to question why any contemporary popular artist would even participate."

Desperate and flailing, delusions abound:

"We must acknowledge the massive cultural impact of Eminem and Kanye West and how their music is shaping, influencing and defining the voice of a generation," Stoute wrote.

As for Bieber, he wrote, "How is it that Justin Bieber, an artist that defines what it means to be a modern artist, did not win Best New Artist?"

'Defining the voice of a generation','defines what it means to be a modern artist.' I can't help but ask for their definition of 'define.' It looks like Stoute also makes the same error I noticed from the Business Insider article where the terms 'record industry' and 'music industry' are used interchangeably. The music industry is bigger and more dynamic than ever, it's the record industry that's dying.

The record industry was all along supposed to be in the business of music delivery, not cultural overreach and intrusion. This mission confusion is the same thing that has afflicted other 'too big to fail' industries and institutions such as big government, labor unions, traditional media, and academia. They have expanded so far beyond their original intent that not only have they broached the comfortable boundaries of the public, they have almost become completely inept at their core services.

While the record industry gasps its final breaths, the production, enjoyment, and examination of music continues to flourish. There is more great music out there than there ever was, and more ways to access it. Research and technology has also allowed us to study music in novel ways, including the way we enjoy it.

Brazilians Daniel Babalin and Rebecca Raia have embarked on a unique project called metrophones where they ask people on the street what they're listening to on their ipods. A beautiful website, after seeing so many different profiles and their musical preferences, you'll feel like you've just walked the streets of Sao Paulo all day talking to people about their music.

Cracked has a list of five ways that music can mess with your mind including altering time perception and tapping into your primal fear.

Brain Pickings has a piece on synesthesia (seeing music as colors) with some terrific examples from a few artists that have this unique gift of visualization. Included is Stephen Malinowski's fascinating Music Animation Machine that displays animated graphs to various compositions.

Instapundit links to the same article and has more on synesthesia.

Jaltcoh has a rebuttal to an idea in Jonah Lehrer's essay for Wired magazine The Neuroscience of Music that discusses the concept of pattern predictability and music enjoyment. He also links to Stephen Malinowski's unique graphical scores.

Beatles overload

2011-02-16T20:36:00.011-05:00

Prompted by a recent movement in Liverpool to preserve the birthplace of Ringo Starr, John Harris writes in the Guardian that since the Gallagher brothers exhumed the pop culture phenomenon of the Beatles in the mid 90's, there has been a revived and unwelcome encroachment of Beatlemania on modern day Britain. This paragraph perfectly describes the point of his essay:

These days, by contrast, they use up so much of the cultural air that we seem little able to breathe. There must be more to life than nodding-dog piano ballads of the Hey Jude variety, but there are times when they seem to define a good 50% of the mainstream. For all their inventive wonderment, one would imagine that I Am the Walrus, Happiness Is a Warm Gun, and Helter Skelter left at least some of rock's more creative possibilities unexplored, though listening to the bulk of even supposedly cutting-edge music, you'd never know.

I would have liked to have seen the writer's reaction to this story: UK university awards first Beatles degree. Canadian Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy became the first student to 'earn' a Masters degree in Beatles, Popular Music, and Society from Liverpool Hope University. Course creator Mike Brocken couldn't be more proud:

Mary-Lu now joins an internationally recognized group of scholars of Popular Music Studies who are able to offer fresh and thought-provoking insights into the discipline of musicology.

Sure. This 'internationally recognized group of scholars' is likely comprised of the only people in the world who would refrain from snickering at Mary-Lu's recent accreditation. I think it's more likely she has joined yet another argument for the Western decline of university humanities departments. There is little to convince me that degree programs in U2, or even Nickelback, won't soon be offered.

Seize the dynamic images and eye movements

2011-02-09T23:10:00.007-05:00

The DIEM project (Dynamic Images and Eye Movements) is an interesting research concept that visually displays where audience members focus their attention when watching videos. Led by Edinburgh University professor John Henderson, they can display the results using a system called CARPE (Computational and Algorithmic Representation and Processing of Eye-movements) that even allows you to put it on your own computer.

This first video shows what part of the people's faces we look at the most. The second one shows a monkey in action, where despite its antics, we always try to follow the face. More videos here.

Video and album covers

2011-02-05T00:47:00.014-05:00

An early 80's classic, Joy Division's iconic "Love Will Tear Us Apart"

... and Canadian indie band P.S. I Love You with their 2010 release "Facelove." It had been so long since I saw the Joy Division video that I didn't even pick up on the resemblance until it was pointed out to me. Great song, and they mimic the mood of the video perfectly.

The cloud and lightning helmet as added touch of absurdity reminded me of the gasmask on The Pod, Ween's front cover mock-up of Leonard Cohen's 1975 Greatest Hits release:

(photo source)

(photo source)

Indian sci-fi

2011-01-25T08:09:00.017-05:00

What happens when you have a film budget of only $40 million dollars and you need a band of killer robots to cut a swath of destruction through a city? Enthiran, that's what.

This ten minute clip has been going viral due to the recent discovery of its terrible awesomeness. Released last year, the movie set the record for most expensive Indian movie ever made. Unfortunately, to non-Indian audiences especially, it comes off as a joke. The special effects technology not only looks 30 years old, it's clumsiness is wincing and unrealistic. In the audience demanding realms of action and sci-fi, this movie is eras behind Knight Rider and the A-Team.

Though technically not Bollywood (i.e. made in Mumbai), it stars Aishwarya Rai, Bollywood's famous beauty queen. Though quite possibly one of the most beautiful women ever, her talent and choice of vehicles belies the arrogant and aristocratic aura she presents. Her appearance on Letterman several years ago is a classic:

Far from burning Letterman, she presents herself as a dumb, rich, anti-American snob with little hope of endearing her forgiving hosts - who also happen to be her potential movie audiences. Sad proof that neither India's biggest movie, nor its biggest star, are anywhere near ready for the big time.

Mazes

2011-01-23T21:05:00.047-05:00

One of the oldest and most unique concepts in existence, mazes are associated with everything from children's games and puzzles to unknown horrors and sheer terror. Like their use in video games, psychology experiments, or the embellished labyrinth of Theseus and the Minotaur fame, mazes are seductive as they allow us to flirt with one of our most primal fears: being lost. The better mazes however realize that trying to remember your path as you navigate from point A to point B is only half the excitement. What defines a maze are the methods of distraction; the obstacles and challenges along the way that impede your ultimate goal of escaping.

From the Daily Mail I found this article about Ikea's strategy for losing customers in their store mazes. That they have trouble finding their way out, and are confronted with an array of time and money consuming diversions, is precisely the point.

It's more common to see these superstores with maze style floor plans rather than the traditional symmetrical grids. We have all felt the general and immediate sensations of being lost in these places, and we all know it's deliberate. Businesses spend a small fortune hiring companies to not only optimize the last square foot of their floor spaces, but to also look for all possible ways to delay your exit.

For anyone who has worked at or frequented a casino, the use of mazes as customer traps is hardly novel. Everything from the gaming tables and the slot machines to the lunch buffet and the entertainment stage is strategically placed to confuse and entrap people into not just spending their money, but actually losing it.

Pharaoh's Palace in Macau, China

With no windows, overspaced layouts, mirror walls, optical illusions, repeating and hypnotizing patterns on the floor, walls, and carpet, casinos are the masters of customer maze manipulation.

The Flamingo in Las Vegas

The MGM in Las Vegas

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: 'Picture Me Rollin'

The Wynn in Las Vegas

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: 'Picture Me Rollin'

Casinos play on the same idea of endless depth that you see in popular mirror mazes. The first photo is the from the Petrin Hill mirror maze in Prague, Czech Republic. The second photo of The Mirror Maze in Lucerne, Switzerland I found from a site that has a terrific progression of mazes and labyrinths from as far back as 20000 BC.

British maze designer Adrian Fisher explains the wonder of mirror mazes:

The amusing thing about a mirror maze is that whichever way you turn, and however far you go, you're always looking in the wrong place.

Though I had heard of the popularity of hedge mazes in the U.S. and Europe, I didn't realize there were so many, and in so many unique designs. This video is an amazing (ugh) Google Earth journey of several dozen of these outdoor mazes.

Friendship

2011-01-18T08:42:00.036-05:00

It had felt like some time since the latest hit on U.S.-U.K. relations from the Obama administration and I was starting to wonder. Last week however delivered the goods when Obama, in his now comfortably sycophantic mode, stated "We don’t have a stronger friend and stronger ally than Nicolas Sarkozy and the French people."

Stunning.

But not that much. For American presidents, Obama's appreciation for the friendship between the U.S. and the U.K. is the worst in memory. Despite the fact that the Brits are standing alongside their American cousins in the Islamist wars, in the greatest numbers and in the greatest political capital, there still seems to be a very meagre thanks. Obama's clumsy serenade of the French is only the latest in what has become a very long list of overt acts of rudeness toward America's strongest ally. Since Obama has taken office, he has:

* Publicly removed the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. This was a loan/gift given to the U.S. from the U.K. just after the 9-11 attacks. It represented a touching gesture of friendship and solidarity as it was Churchill who first commented on the unique friendship between the two nations. Three weeks into office, Obama shipped it back.

* Made a spectacle of U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's first state visit under Obama's presidency. Less than a month after the bust of Churchill incident, the leader of the U.K. was given a rushed and confusing stay that was beyond offensive. No ceremony, no reception, no dinner - not even a press conference. Surprisingly, this was the lesser of his embarrassments during Brown's visit. The gift exchange between the two leaders has gone down as one of his most memorable gaffes yet. Brown gave Obama a pen holder made from the timbers of the anti-slave ship the HMS Gannet, the sister ship that the White House desk was made from, in addition to a first edition, seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill. Obama gave Brown a last minute 25 DVD box-set of American movies (complete list here), which of course are perfectly incompatible with British DVD players and thus remain unwatched. Obama's kids received dresses with matching necklaces and pre-published British authored books while Brown's kids received toy replicas of the presidential Marine One helicopter. The generosity of Obama's credit account at the White House gift shop is handsome.

* Offered a weak and unconvincing response when one of his aides said to a British reporter, who asked a question about Brown's odd visit, "There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment." Unlikely a White House staffer would say something like this if it wasn't the common sentiment around the workplace.

* At least given a more personal gift to the Queen, a much more personal, and strange, gift. Obama's visit and gift exchange with the U.K.'s most revered figure was thankfully more tactful and dignified than Brown's a month earlier. While the Queen gave the Obama's the customary silver framed autographed photo of her and Prince Philip (yawn), Obama gave the Queen a video playing iPod (which she actually asked for as her current iPod could only play music) that included photos and videos from her 1957 and 2007 visits to the U.S. Also included was a charming list of American showtunes which the Queen always had a fondness for. It was a thoughtful and wonderful gift that was only marred by the inclusion of two of Obama's speeches in the playlist, as well as photos from the day of his inauguration. Though it wasn't too much of an embarrassment, it was a bizarre act of reciprocal hubris.

* Sided with Argentina, Britain's enemy, on the Falkland Islands issue. The U.K. fought a war less than 30 years ago defending the islanders from malignant Argentinian rule, and has continued to expend treasure in the service of since then. Like other colonial protectorates, the Brits will leave the island when the islanders ask, no sooner. The Obama administration took Argentina's point of view when they suggested the islands could be negotiated.

Some list for only two years in office, and these are merely my favorites - so far. His animosity toward the U.K. and the British culture in general is not hard to understand. His Kenyan ancestors' experience with British colonials was less than favorable, including accounts of his grandfather's imprisonment and torture due to acts of sedition. Both of Obama's parents were avowed communists with a disdain for the West, and his entire education and early adulthood was dominated by anti-Western zealots like Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright. Obama has been cultivated with a hatred for Anglo supremacy since his birth and will never understand the special bond between the U.S. and the U.K., nor their role as vanguards of the West.

To the Brits, the Americans, as well as many French, this latest act of sucking up to France is as phony as it looks. France is clearly not 'America's strongest friend or ally' and hasn't been for 200 years. The U.K. however shouldn't take its temporarily downgraded relationship with the U.S. too personally. While Obama may be the most anti-British U.S. president in recent memory, he's also the most anti-American.

Unusual acid trips

2011-01-17T00:40:00.016-05:00

From Videosift I found a humorous clip of a 1950's LSD study with a young American housewife. It's less a study and more a casual conversation where the doctor asks the subject simple questions such as "How do you feel?" and "What do you see?" For those high on the drug however, questions like these can seem remarkably profound and require only the most philosophical and poetic response. A difficult thing to do while sober, nevermind while lost in the hallucinatory fantasy lands acid takes you to.

The video immediately reminded me of the viral video from several years ago of British soldiers on LSD. As funny as the behavior of the troops is the narrator's concise and academic description of the silliness on display.

And the less entertaining Americans:

Like the drug itself, LSD experimentation can have a dark side. Despite the general harmlessness of acid, even a stoner would agree that administering it to children is beyond irresponsible. Timothy Leary's communal living arrangement at the Millbrook Estate during the 60's saw children of the families also experiment with the drug.

I don't think we learned too much with this disturbing experiment other than cats on LSD aren't very cute.

Friday Night Videos

2011-01-14T22:45:00.004-05:00

Nickelback

Having sold over 30 million discs, Canada's Nickelback is one of the nation's all time most popular rock and roll exports. They have been nominated a half dozen times for every major music award and with the exception of a Grammy (despite six nominations), they have won at least a couple from each event.

Since their second release, the late 90's breakthrough The State, they were poised to sound like they could define the next post-grunge FM sound. Charted singles like "Breathe" and "Leader of Men" sounded like a rising band ready for the spotlight. Their 2001 release Silver Side Up made them bona fide rock stars, and with arena anthems like "Never Again," "Too Bad," and especially the popular "How You Remind Me," it was easy to see why.

The next year lead singer Chad Kroeger would team up with journeyman Josey Scott for the Spider-man 2 classic "Hero." Though Kroeger was the only member of Nickelback on the song, it didn't matter. Same music, same face, same thing. "Nickelback" was now in the business of big Hollywood themes.

Through the decade it's been steady as she goes:

Gold and platinum records, blockbuster movie themes, WWE and Olympic anthems. They sell out concerts worldwide and have influenced dozens of chart topping bands. As far as rock bands go, they don't get much bigger.

So why do they suck?

They may be one of the world's most popular rock acts, but they are reviled in a way no band has ever been before. Not Poison, not Bon Jovi. Nickelback hatred is unique. Despised by critics and constantly mocked by the public, this video from a few years ago displays a short timeline of the perpetual attacks that seem to take place on Wikipedia's Nickelback entry. Relentless, it is one of the most vandalized non-political pages I've ever seen:

By the late 90's it was assumed that the FM sludge of bands like Bush, Creed, and Big Wreck would be on its way out. Except for the purpose of music history, no longer would there be use for the term 'post-grunge.' This tiresome cliche of rock grandeur was supposed to end with the new millennium, but the zombie Nickelback resurrected the corpse.

In addition, Nickelback has come to symbolize the phony rock star. A glossy rock and roll rebel that is nothing more than a subsidiary of a big corporation. Their tensionless and perfectly crafted songs about strippers and booze as seen from the loser's table has become the muzak of FM radio. Strange, considering they're nice, humble guys who don't even party like rock stars should. That might actually be the sole reason for the immense Nickleback hatred: they're boring.

Strangers

2011-01-10T22:50:00.011-05:00

New York based photographer Richard Renaldi has an interesting project called "Strangers Touching." It's a collection of over forty photographs that show strangers in various poses, from the awkward to the playful, displaying some form of friendly contact. Some of the photographs show the subjects' obvious discomfort while others look remarkably natural, challenging the perception that you are seeing strangers.

Some unique people

2011-01-06T02:18:00.037-05:00

Denis Dutton

If you've been to Arts and Letters Daily the past week, you'll notice a memoriam to co-founder Denis Dutton on the left side of the date banner. The American in New Zealand academic passed away just before the new year from cancer, and like many interesting minds, will probably now find just appreciation for his work.

One of his more fascinating projects was with the popular journal Philosophy and Literature which he co-edited with fellow philosophy professor, and jazz musician, Garry Hagberg. Known for exposing senseless academic pedantry, the journal's annual Bad Writing Contest came to an unfortunate end in 1998 after hurt feelings on the part of Western deconstructionist professor and political firebrand Judith Butler, who won the award with this steaming pile of intellectual babble:

The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.

Dutton's observation was priceless:

To ask what this means is to miss the point. This sentence beats readers into submission and instructs them that they are in the presence of a great and deep mind. Actual communication has nothing to do with it.

As a lifelong student of Kant, I know that philosophy is not always well-written. But when Kant or Aristotle or Wittgenstein are most obscure, it’s because they are honestly grappling with the most complex and difficult problems the human mind can encounter. How different from the desperate incantations of the Bad Writing Contest winners, who hope to persuade their readers not by argument but by obscurity that they too are the great minds of the age.

Here is Dutton giving a TED-talk on one of his favorite topics, beauty:

Ted Williams

Not quite a rags-to-riches, but a story maybe more heartwarming. Ted Williams was a homeless man who had taken to panning along a highway in Columbus, Ohio when someone noted his begging sign. It read that he had a 'god given gift of voice':

Perhaps unexpected was such a kind and amicable man behind the sign. So warm and welcoming, after making good on his claim, he was given an opportunity to communicate his story to the public. The video went viral and he has since tidied up, received numerous job offers, and has reunited with his mom. It's his personality as much as his voice that has propelled his story.

Phoenix Jones and the Rain City Superhero Movement

Walk the streets in peace good citizens of Seattle. There are superheroes among you, and they're not hard to spot:

Equipped with partial stab and bulletproof armor, tasers, mace, tear gas, as well as military and mixed martial arts backgrounds, they are as close to street-level superhero as it gets. A few more slick gadgets and an anonymous bankroller and Batman is realized.

Phoenix Jones and his cohorts are part of what has been a recent trend of superhero self-identification combined with civic samaritanism. Other groups like the Real Life Superheroes make a point of stating the intent and general harmlessness of their deeds, and though like Batman I'm sure more than a few aren't above quenching their street vigilante thirst, I don't think I see any harm other than their potential injury and possible police embarrassment.

Charlotte

Are you smarter than a 2 year old? Maybe not when it comes to U.S. presidents:

Not so much unique people, though they could be, but rather a unique situation: French kids trying to make sense of old technology.

Is classical music dead?

2011-01-04T23:40:00.011-05:00

I've seen this theme arise in the arts and entertainment world for as long as I can remember. Never for any particular reason, every once in a while it's a question that gets asked though not really debated. Helium magazine shows exactly why. Though the 'yes' side has been taking a well deserved beating, their proponents are not bereft of witty observation:

There are those who claim to like classical music. There are also those who claim to like salad, exercise, and preparing their own taxes. In fact, such people are fairly common, so common that there is a name for them as a group. They are called "liars".

Thanks to the many on the 'no' side, Helium's ongoing debate (where any writer, skilled or otherwise, can participate) has been a terrific education on the continued relevance of classical music. Just as inspiring is this conversation at Reddit where poster Stevenup7002 asked if anyone truly enjoys listening to classical music. Judging by the 1000+ comments, the answer seems to be a resounding 'yes.'

Like other genres, classical music will simply occupy smaller pieces of the pie as new ones are squeezed in. While true that today's classical music may not be as revered as other forms of music, and nor will it be studied in the future the way we study Mozart or Bach, the common practice era alone has contributed over three hundred years to the Western music canon. With the exception of jazz, no other classification of Western music can compare, in volume or style, to any one of the three main genres (baroque, classical, romantic) of classical music.

2010 music round-up

2011-01-01T16:20:00.013-05:00

I usually refrain from making my own best of the year music lists as I probably won't know how good 2010 really was until about 2012-3. Like every year, I miss more great music than I hear. If I had to choose my favorite video of 2010, it would easily be "Tighten Up" by the Black Keys:

Song of the year? I couldn't resist this bit of electro-pop indulgence:

Pitchfork of course has an excellent year end round up, including the top hundred songs of the year, the top 50 albums, the best videos, and the worst album covers.

From Stereogum, a list of the 12 most nsfw videos, their top 50 albums, and a terrific montage of bands that were lost in 2010, likely inspired by this video from the New York Times showing the musicians who passed away last year.

NME's top 75 albums.

Rolling Stone's 30 best albums and 50 best songs.

Spin's 40 best albums and 20 best songs.

Spinner's 50 best songs, 30 best albums.

If all that is too specific, you can simply refer to Wikipedia's list of albums released in 2010.

And if reading is all too much, there's always the mash-ups:

Friday Night Videos

2010-12-17T02:41:00.007-05:00

Magnolia

Despite the A-list cast and big Hollywood pull, Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia wasn't very popular, but to many who have seen it, it's highly memorable. One of the most riveting movies of the past decade, it's a web of damaged characters, complex relationships, and some lingering and disturbing examples of loneliness. After the opening narration, Aimee Mann's spooky cover of Harry Nilsson's "One" sets the perfect tone for the movie.

The soundtrack is mainly an Aimee Mann vehicle as she performs all but a few of the songs. She received a Grammy nomination and an Academy award nomination for "Save Me," a video that has her filmed with different characters in different scenes from the movie.

The soundtrack's most beautiful song is without a doubt the haunting "Wise Up." The song occurs near the end of the movie where the characters, in various states of redemption seeking, individually sing along in a truly captivating sequence.

The few non-Aimee Mann songs include the film's score by Jon Brion and a couple of Supertramp songs: "Goodbye Stranger" and "The Logical Song." (audio only)

Tom Cruise's best role ever:

A link to the movie (missing part 5!) on YouTube.

Here's Aimee Mann 17 years ago with "I Should've Known."

And 25 years ago with 80's new wave band Til Tuesday.

A little holiday pi

2010-12-16T23:08:00.010-05:00

Though Pi Day doesn't fall for another three months (March 14 - and I don't recognize July 22), I've coincidentally run across several pieces of the pi in the last day or so. First there was this strange CGI music video that comes as close as any attempt I've seen to fit the digits of pi into some kind of rhythm:

It reminds me of the fascinating Tom Dukich and his experiment in sonifying mathematical constants, including pi.

'Tis the season for pi related stocking stuffers. A pizza cutter:

A shower curtain (to 4600 digits!):

And of course a necklace:

And this fun list of 50 pi facts at Random Facts:

14. If the circumference of the earth were calculated using π rounded to only the ninth decimal place, an error of no more than one quarter of an inch in 25,000 miles would result.

21. ... the number 360 is at the 359th digit position of pi.

29. The first million decimal places of pi consist of 99,959 zeros, 99,758 1s, 100,026 2s, 100,229 3s, 100,230 4s, 100,359 5s, 99,548 6s, 99,800 7s, 99,985 8s, and 100,106 9s.

40. There are no occurrences of the sequence 123456 in the first million digits of pi — but of the eight 12345s that do occur, three are followed by another 5. The sequence 012345 occurs twice and, in both cases, it is followed by another 5.

41. Some scholars claim that humans are programmed to find patterns in the world because it’s the only way we can give meaning to the world and ourselves. Hence, the obsessive search to find patterns in π.

More fun with maps

2010-12-09T17:46:00.032-05:00

What might it look like if the size of nations were reflected by the number of people? Here's a novel idea from Reddit user JPalmz of switching around countries based on their populations:

A couple of TV based maps from Dan Meth:

Couldn't pass up his cool music chart on the 60's British invasion:

Not a bad ranking, though I'd say The Kinks should be the lone Colonel, The Animals a Major, The Dave Clark Five a Captain and all Captains and Lieutenants switch places. The pink is merely cannon fodder, though Manfred Mann and The Zombies may be considered for promotion.

I didn't realize the world used so many different social networking sites - they won't be for long. Hard to tell which map is more daunting, the first one showing Facebook's assimilation progress, or the second one showing what friend networks look like on a world map.

Facebook - the new Borg.

The last map is an interactive map from the New York Times showing census information across the U.S. It doesn't sound too impressive, but it's easy to lose a couple of hours once you start playing with it.

The United States of Autocomplete

2010-12-06T03:59:00.017-05:00

An intriguing map of the U.S. states as typed into Google.

Most of the states were lucky enough to score flattering autocompletes, with universities and sports teams being the most popular search suggestions. California Prop 19 was the most currently political, unless you include the New York Times. Hawaii Five-O was the coolest result while Vermont Country Store was the most charming.

There were of course a few embarrassments. Montana Fishburne, daughter of actor Laurence Fishburne, is a porn star. The Washington Post is based in Washington D.C., not Washington state. The Kansas City Chiefs play in Kansas City Missouri, not Kansas City Kansas. The Delaware Gap isn't in Delaware and Nevada Smiths is a popular New York bar. And although accurate, Illinois lottery is probably not what you want your state known for.

I remember this from BuzzFeed a couple months ago: Google auto-fill stereotypes.

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

2010-12-02T00:57:00.014-05:00

It's one of the most incredible videos I've seen this year. Hans Rosling's video on the wealth, population, and life expectancies of the world's nations is not only a stunning history lesson, but a clever use of technology that allows him to add a third dimension (time) to his graph.

Expect to see more interactive lessons like this emerge in all the imaginable disciples. I look most forward to the ones on astronomy or the cosmos.

One issue that seems to be giving the comment boards fits is the perception of Africa. Though it hasn't improved at the exponential rate other cultures have, in the last two hundred years it has doubled its life expectancy and tripled its wealth. It is far better off now than all other people were only a hundred years ago.

The nations of Africa are depicted in blue:

It raises a few interesting questions. How important is the rich-poor gap if the poorest are fed and live moderately long (50-60 years) life spans? How long should their lifespans be before the cessation of foreign aid? What parallels are seen on the national level where the poor own cell phones and drive to the food bank in their vehicles?

Element soup

2010-11-30T23:16:00.007-05:00

It wasn't something I had thought of before, and now that I've read it, I can't get it out of my mind. What would happen if you could simultaneously collide every element of the periodic table?

The smart folks seem in agreement - an explosion of some kind and leftover scrap molecules. I say there is only one way to be truly certain.
The other approach, as explained by John Stanton, the director of the Institute for Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Texas, would be to toss a pulverized chunk of each element or a puff of each gas into a sealed container and see what happens. No one has ever tried this experiment either, but here’s how Stanton thinks things would play out: “The oxygen gas would react with lithium or sodium and ignite, raising the temperature in the container to the point that all hell would break loose. Powdered graphite carbon would ignite, too. There are roughly 25 radioactive elements, and they would make your flaming stew a little dangerous. Flaming plutonium is a very bad thing. Inhaling airborne radioactive material can cause rapid death.”

Once things calmed down, Stanton says, the result would be as boring as the atoms-only scenario. Carbon and oxygen would yield carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Nitrogen gas is very stable, and would remain as is. The noble gases wouldn’t react, nor would a few of the metals, like gold and platinum, which are mostly found in their pure forms. The things that do react will form rust and salts. “Thermodynamics wins again,” he says. “Things will always achieve equilibrium, and in this case that’s a mix of common, stable compounds.”

(photo source)

Battle of the hillbilly covers

2010-11-27T22:07:00.006-05:00

I simply can't decide which I like better - The Pigs' cover of Beyonce's "Single Ladies":

Or the Ooks of Hazzard's cover of MGMT's "Kids":

Both vie for second place however as The Gourds' mandolin driven barefoot rave-up of Snoop's "Gin and Juice" is tops.

Too bad they both didn't lose

2010-11-22T05:52:00.002-05:00

I wasn't happy when Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008. With good reason it would appear as he is currently looking like the worst president since Jimmy Carter. Two thirds of the country thinks it's heading in the wrong direction, and after only two years on the job, even his own party has lost faith in him. At the bottom of the page of the first link is an interesting snapshot of articles on Obama. The change in tone is absolutely stunning. Two years ago there wasn't enough bandwidth to handle the avalanche of opinion pieces fawning over Obama. Now it's all anger:

Despite this, I'm still glad he won. His presidency may unwittingly deliver the bullet that finally bursts the socialist bubble, and maybe a few other bubbles on the way (media, university, Hollywood, etc.) Our over-regulated, excessively governed society is predicated on too many illusions to endure, and there is currently no better example of an illusion than Barack Hussein Obama.

Obama's victory also had the added bonus of preventing John McCain from occupying the Oval Office. It's easy to argue what his policies were going to be, or what direction he would have taken the country, but it's all mere speculation. What is less speculative is the bozo factor he would have brought to the office. Unlike the steam cleaning and general restoration of dignity to the office under George W. Bush, John McCain would have likely used it to amplify his fondness for this type of nonsense:

John McCain: Snooki 'Too Good Looking To Go To Jail'

John McCain Wishes Snooki Happy Birthday (A Week Early)

Embarrassing.

Friday Night Videos

2010-11-19T21:02:00.003-05:00

Kids

I originally started this post with a different title and a sampling of groups such as the Jackson 5 and Little Anthony and the Imperials, but somehow the musicians got younger and younger. It's interesting to see the period where the kids go from being 'really good for their age' to simply 'really good.' You can also see which kids will likely follow the singer-songwriter style, the virtuosity style, or maybe both. All the ages indicated are from the time of the video, not their ages today.

Though heavy with the child warble, five year old Wesley does a terrific job with Johnny Cash's 'Folsom Prison Blues.' Watching a five year old sing the line "When I was just a baby" (at 0:32) is priceless.

Brother and sister duo Dylan and Lauren at a county picnic with an incredible acoustic version of the Foo Fighters' 'Everlong.' The 'child sound' has almost faded from the sister's vocals while the guitar playing brother has the poise, and nearly the sound, of a professional.

An odd story behind eight year old prodigy Tallan Latz. Due to his young age, he has been banned by his home state, Wisconsin, from playing in bars or clubs. A closer examination of the story reveals other musicians might be the ones behind the lobby to keep him from playing, and it's easy to see why. Not only does he play like he was raised in the wild by a pack of blind old bluesmen, he's got the man on his back.

Here is 9 year old Japanese prodigy Yuto Miyazawa. His cover of Ozzy Osbourne's 'Crazy Train' is near perfect (the guitar playing anyway) but it's meeting his idol afterward that is the biggest thrill.

Here he is again a year later on Ellen, this time playing 'Paranoid.' More amazing is the short clip at 1:55 that shows him on stage with Ozzy. Incredible to see a child looking so comfortable in the role of rock star.

Here rest some of these men

2010-11-11T15:21:00.006-05:00

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill

(photo source)

World of justice

2010-11-01T23:24:00.016-04:00

As an awkward looking, awkward sounding teenage boy living in the world of video entertainment, living in the unforgiving halls of high school can be an absolute nightmare. The teasing is relentless. Prank obsessed jocks toss you around like a human ragdoll. Aside from some consoling and support, your friends are of little help as they too are at the mercy of similar fates. And girls? Forget it.

Redemption however comes in many forms and here is a wonderful example. At a recent BlizzCon audience q & a with two of the World of Warcraft brain trust, a teenager so nervous he looked like he was going to freeze pointed out an obscure anomaly in the game. Because he was able to fully muster his question, and partly due to the honorable response of the two spokesmen, it was an inspiring moment. Even better was that it was all on film, and 'Red Shirt Guy' quickly turned into a well received viral video.

If that wasn't enough, the gamemakers turned Red Shirt Guy into a World of Warcraft character! Wildhammer Fact Checker. To be a character in a video game, or a movie, or a play, is a dream come true and this guy is living it.

(photo source)

Uncommon Knowledge

2010-10-22T03:12:00.032-04:00

Hard to believe this series has been around for over ten years. The Hoover Institution's unrivaled current affairs talk show Uncommon Knowledge remains one of the most informative and approachable 30 minute examinations of politics and world affairs available online.

I actually found it much livelier years ago. When I first discovered the show in 2002 the format tended more to a roundtable style with two or three guests, one of them usually in political opposition to the others. Heated debates could happen, but unlike those common on the big media channels, the show and the guests were far too intelligent and mature to tolerate ridiculous arguments and talking point partisanism. Lately it has been either an interview style with a one on one format, or a discussion with two guests generally in political congruence. It's continued level of popularity is in large part a testament to erudite host and former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson, who carries the unenviable task of trying to pull easy answers from his guests on highly complicated topics.

Among my favorite guests is military historian and philosopher Victor Davis Hanson, who is not only a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, but probably sets the record for most appearances on the show. Here is his latest where he talks about the post cold war new world order:

When I have discussions with others about the future of Europe, they usually go wide-eyed when I explain my prediction of another world war and possibly another holocaust. Maybe the Jews again, but maybe also the Muslims. Talking about his book America Alone, Mark Steyn explains the events that could lead up to that reality:

The latest guest is popular British MP Daniel Hannan, who became an internet star last year with his beautiful excoriation of Prime Minister Gordon Campbell. Here he warns America to resist following any European models of democracy.

Again with the chicken and the egg

2010-10-04T14:06:00.021-04:00

The latest in the chicken vs egg debate as internet meme has this supposed drawing by a seventh grader:

When it comes to today's accuracy of picture and video, I have difficulty trusting almost everything. It certainly could have been done by a seventh grader, but it looks more like an excuse to resurrect the chicken vs egg meme that seems to recycle every few years. The last one I remember was in 2006, fueled by a popular CNN news report that boasted of the unique consensus between a geneticist, a farmer, and a philosopher.

The debate has always been less about the sequential order of things and more about definition. It's accepted that the chicken mutated from the jungle fowl line, which reduces the argument to 'ownership' of the first egg. Is it a chicken egg or a jungle fowl egg? The consensus seems to be that if a jungle fowl emerges from the egg, it's a 'jungle fowl egg,' but if a chicken emerges it's a 'chicken egg.' If a zebra were to emerge, it would be a 'zebra egg.' Ownership and designation is not determined by what lays it, but by what comes out. The egg therefore precedes the chicken.

A much worthier paradox:

100 Worst Songs Ever

2010-09-23T14:29:00.013-04:00

Don't count em out yet - AOL is still hanging in. Matthew Wilkening from AOL's Radioblog has a terrific list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever. It was to my surprise when I saw Starship's "We Built this City" ranked at number 22. My understanding was there was an unwritten code among listmakers that this song was to forever occupy the number one position. Are there really 21 songs worse than this one?

21 - "One Week" Barenaked Ladies

Writer makes a good point noting the smugness of the song's too cutesy wordplay. This could have been a great song without the white rapping.

20 - "What's Up" 4 Non Blondes

Like the previous entry, this tune isn't that bad. It just has that one annoying quality about it (in this case the screeching) that heavily distracts from what could have been a good song.

19 - "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" Will Smith
18 - "Achy Breaky Heart" Billy Ray Cyrus
17 - "MMMBop" Hanson

Corporate cash-ins using the most banal and generic sounding music possible in the respective fields of hip-hop, country, and pop. Their inclusion is warranted.

16 - "Hollaback Girl" Gwen Stefani

Sure the Grrrlpop sound can get a little irksome after a while, but this is a fine pop hit. Calling this the 16th 'worst song ever' smacks of bubblegum bigotry.

15 - "Rico Suave" Gerardo

Should have been higher.

14 - "Convoy" C.W. McCall

A popular pick - one of the funniest non-novelty songs ever.

13 - "With Arms Wide Open" Creed

If this song was done by any other band it would be nowhere near this list. It's Creed that is disliked, this just happens to be their signature song.

12 - "Wannabe" Spice Girls

See 16.

11 - "My Heart Will Go On" Celine Dion

An overbearing and intrusive vocalist whose songs are always tainted with a fake emotional bombast. The female counterpart to Creed.

10 - "Macarena" Los Del Rio

The first song I've seen thus far that truly challenges the law of Starship. It might not have been so bad if it wasn't for the awful dance that will be forever associated with it.

9 - "Ebony and Ivory" Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder

A lame song to be sure, but its high positioning has more to do with hype disappointment. Two of pop history's finest singer-songwriters and this was the best they could do?

8 - "I'm Too Sexy" Right Said Fred

Another dumb club hit, fair enough.

7 - "I Am Woman" Helen Reddy

More boring than bad. It sounds like a rejected theme song for Rhoda or Mary Tyler Moore.

6 - "U Can't Touch This" MC Hammer
3 - "Ice Ice Baby" Vanilla Ice

Making really bad songs from really great riffs only exacerbates the situation.

5 - "Barbie Girl" Aqua

Terrible songs from Anglo countries are one thing, but when imported from Europe, the odium doubles.

4 - "She Bangs" Ricky Martin

Not sure putting a song here was even necessary, the name says enough.

2 - "Who Let the Dogs Out?" Baha Men

Winning a Grammy and a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for the same song is just not right.

1 - "(It's Time to) Beat Dat Beat" DJ Pauly D

Not only is this song way too new to be the 'worst song ever,' most people don't watch Jersey Shore nor would they have heard this song. A terrible pick.

There are some great selections on the rest of the list, many one-hit wonders and forgotten bands. The author has clearly done his research, but I'm not sure I can get over the pro-Starship bias.

Gardens of mental delight

2010-09-22T00:44:00.013-04:00

A few interesting approaches to conceptual gardening. The first one, if for nothing else, the dynamic title alone: The Garden of Cosmic Speculation. Located near Dumfries Scotland, it's a private garden (open one day a year) created by Charles Jencks and Maggie Keswick. Inspired by scientific concepts such as fractals and black holes, it is one of the most unique gardens in the world.

On a smaller scale, the Toronto Music Garden, a public park on the city's harbourfront, is an interesting garden created by world cellist Yo Yo Ma and landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy. Inspired by Bach's 'Six Cello Suites,' each movement is represented by its own smaller garden that serves as part of the continuous flow of the piece. In the summer audio tours are available that play music selections as you walk through the different movements. It's also not unusual to see the occasional inspired musician practicing somewhere in the park.

This garden is even more exclusive as it's not open to the public. Splice Garden is the outdoor lunch grounds for the faculty of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was created by David Baltimore who had to work around various constraints (extra weight, maintenance, etc.) that didn't allow for live flora. All greenery in the garden is artificial, and uniquely placed. The two halves, inspired by French and Japanese styles, represent the controversial dangers of gene splicing.

Oxford dictionary's most disappointing 2010 entries

2010-09-21T18:41:00.011-04:00

Time's Newsfeed has a list of new words for the 2010 edition of what I thought was the English language's finest dictionary, Oxford. Some of these additions are strange: chill pill, chillax, buzzkill, cheeseball, tramp stamp. Crude and decades late to the party. Perhaps there is a waiting period for the more juvenile slang as other words that made it in such as paywall, staycation, freemium, and bromance are only a few years old.

The first list brings up a questionable trend with the inclusion of so many phrases. I suppose there are already many in the dictionary that don't look out of place, but I can see in a short time a clogging effect, especially with cumbersome entries such as social media, dictionary attack, national treasure, carbon capture and storage, quantitative easing, exit strategy, soft skills, and wardrobe malfunction. I find the last entry to be silly and academically distasteful. It is the equivalent of adding the annoying mid 80's phrase 'Where's the beef?'

Other odd entries include truthiness, automagically, interweb, matchy-matchy, tweetup, and hikikomori (the abnormal avoidance of social contact, typically by adolescent males). Reading the list gives one the sense that Oxford is trying so hard to be trendy, and political, that it doesn't look as confident with words as it should.

Can you count to two thousand?

2010-09-16T00:03:00.000-04:00

It's interesting how one of the most simple and mindless tasks imaginable can be so remarkably difficult. All of us as kids have tried at some point to see how high we could count, starting at lowly number one and racing to infinity. By about thirty or forty the novelty wears off and one realizes just how endless the game can become. It is too easy, and pointless, that doing it for as little as five minutes can induce a mind tedium that broaches torture. The focus and mental discipline required for such a task is suitable for nothing less than an android.

This remarkable fellow made it to two thousand before he had enough. Not including a few phone calls, a trip to the washroom, and pausing occasionally to alleviate mental anguish, the feat took him just under an hour. I presume however that he has spent several hours since making this video in contemplation, and confusion, about the unique mental exercise he endured. Lest you get the impression he was doing this for some kind of psychology research, the first thing he says after reaching two thousand is "Take that Chuck Norris."

I'm not sure if getting over a half million views on YouTube while wearing a t-shirt that says "My Life Sucks" can today be considered irony.

Reality 2.0

2010-09-08T23:54:00.010-04:00

Currently available in sunglasses, and within a few years, contact lenses. Walking around with bubbles and messages in front of our faces might seem strange at first (I can't wait to watch the endless pedestrian accidents), but we will adapt.

-art and photos: Oliver Uberti, National Geographic Magazine

Just when you thought National Geographic couldn't get any more wondrous, here's an incredible video of a desert research team getting caught in a giant sandstorm.

Colors

2010-06-06T20:04:00.021-04:00

The representation of different colors from one group of people to the next is like other cultural comparisons such as language or food where there can be as much to explore in the similarities as the differences. David McCandless' "Colours in Culture" makes the task of comparing color representations a little easier with the aid of handy pinwheel:

(click to enlarge)

In categories with three or more representations chosen, only evil (black), heat (red), cold (blue), passion (red), and loyalty (red) were unanimous in their color choices. Almost so were truce (white), purity (white), anger (red), and success (surprisingly red). Accepting the data, it's odd to see a few color representations missing from the Western wheel such as bad luck (black?) or life (green?). Calm was the only category with no takers.

The most popular colors, red, white, blue, green, yellow, are also the most visible colors when looking at the flags of the world:

The popularity of red and blue is no surprise as they are the color symbols (darker blue, lighter red) and generally the favorite colors of males and females. From Neurotopia I found a sassy article that examines some of the current research in the field of color preference theory. Some acute observations from Scicurious as well as her commenters. For something a little lighter, this chart serves as a handy intro to gender color preference:

Minimalist color blocks of Street Fighter characters:

From BuzzFeed, the most colorful cities in the world:

Nice to see Canada made the list (St John's, Newfoundland).

(photo source)

No square Diamond

2009-08-10T20:36:00.014-04:00

With a clean cut appearance and songs like "Sweet Caroline," "Beautiful Noise," and "Forever in Blue Jeans," Neil Diamond has presented a wholesome image since the late 60's. To many, his name belongs in the dullsville of pop crooners with the likes of Burt Bacharach and Johnny Mathis and other stuff old people listen to.

In addition to being overlooked for his coolness, his playful “Pot Smoker's Song" from the 1968 release Velvet Gloves and Spit is a song that is barely known, even among his fans. A bouncy tune, it's pretty much a repeating chorus interspersed with ridiculous testimonials of how pot can destroy your life in the most unimaginable ways. A subtle attack on some of the more laughable attempts at anti-pot propaganda, the song is so well done it's easy to believe that it could have actually been written for a backed by more money than brains government sponsored ad.

Neil himself was no stranger to pot. In 1976 his home was raided on suspicion of possession. Though he had less than an ounce, he still had to attend a six month drug aversion program to have his record expunged.

The fake testimonials in the song remind me of some of the more humorous anti-drug ads over the years. The first one makes drugs look more fun than they are (big mistake!), the second one a catch phrase classic, and the third one a terrible attempt to connect two marginally related issues.

And a couple of my favorite anti-drug ads, not-coincidentally featuring young beautiful women:

"Joanna"

Rachel Leigh Cook

Not feeling it

2009-08-01T23:01:00.008-04:00

In the so yesterday's news item of the Black Eyed Peas and Perez Hilton dust-up, I came out heavily in favor of the Black Eyed Peas. A generally happy pop band confronting an insufferable sleaze monger for the vitriol he has published on his website. A murky area in criminal and civil law, common sense and public opinion suggest the snarky schoolyard gossip got exactly what he deserved. Perez Hilton's pitiful public relations attempt after the fact was sadder than Metallica on the therapist's couch in their Some Kind of Monster documentary. Only a passing fan of their music, I began to like the Black Eyed Peas more and more thanks to Perez Hilton.

If it wasn't shining bright enough on the band, Fergie does what every sensible Hollywood starlet is doing and declares her past bisexuality. An instant google bomb and a direct spike in sales of everything Fergie, Black Eyed Peas, and anything remotely attached to them. How the kids (Inc.) have grown! This revelation came about as a result of the latest Black Eyed Peas video "I Got a Feeling" which depicts some lesbian activity amidst the usual goings on of a typical Black Eyed Peas party (although without the tables of cocaine, pills, and booze, these ersatz video parties that bands can't resist depicting themselves in always smell fake).

But it probably wouldn't matter if the entire video was hardcore lesbian porn, the song is terrible. Everything about it, including the video, is not only phoned in, but poorly done so. It takes Cracked.com's Gladstone to explain how bad it really is:

You're two and one Black Eyed Peas.

Greater Robert Baden-Powell

2009-07-21T22:47:00.000-04:00

'Being prepared' is a phrase that indicates a particular pragmatism where one should keep an eye on tomorrow when conducting today's affairs. 'Be prepared' conveys a more immediate tone as it suggests elements of danger and survival. The Boy Scout motto was always about more than camping preparedness; it was about the possibility of living off the land with nothing more than a handful of makeshift adaptable tools and your own guile. It's a perfectly concise phrase that evokes American frontiership.

The urban environment however carries a different series of challenges that wilderness survival doesn't necessarily equip you for. Via Instapundit I came across an article that describes a fascinating course called Urban Escape and Evade that teaches everything from lockpicking to abduction, confinement and escape. That courses like this exist is no surprise, but its recent spike in business in conjunction with stats and reports that are showing ammo purchases skyrocket, the term 'be prepared' is looking to take on a whole new meaning.

Politics and perception

2009-07-17T16:47:00.006-04:00

Several months ago I came across this photo of Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni taken during Obama's visit to France:

The depiction of an angry and bitter Michelle Obama staring icily at her prettier, more accomplished, and popular 'friend' was obvious yet still irresistible. Ann Althouse invited a flurry of political and psychological speculation by hosting one of her more humorous caption contests. One commenter did a good job explaining the context of capturing such a quick moment in time:

I enjoy this sort of exercise as much as the next guy, but as a professional photographer I'd like to point out that a still photo like this should NEVER be taken seriously. A fraction of a second captured like that can seem to show something that just was not there. It looks to me like she's actually looking behind the other woman. Or, it could be that her face just looked like that for a fraction of a second between smiles because she was uncomortable in her seat. If you take enough pictures, there will be some that are flattering to the subject and some that are unflattering. That's just the way it is. A long time ago, I was actually hired to get some unflattering shots of a politician. I shot him at a press conference and it was really easy to get some shots of him looking sullen or angry, even though it was a generally happy occasion. I'm not proud of that, and I wouldn't take a job like that today, but back then I needed the work and I did what was required.

The Obama-Sarkozy 'ass-scandal' exemplified this point perfectly:

It would seem that while Obama is exonerated from this breach of social etiquette, Sarkozy tramples it with an obviousness that would embarrass Bill Clinton.

I asked a friend of mine who had recently been to Paris how it was the French so easily tolerated a ban on smoking in cafes. 'Smoking in a French cafe' - the phrase seems as true as saying 'water is wet.' Though in the Western world's sprint to the most bloated government France can nanny-state with the best of them, this one was far more of a cultural intrusion. Her reply was "the French simply ignore the petty laws they don't like." Revealing yet unsurprising. She said Montreal was very similar with their disregard of inconvenient by-laws. What was so blatant, and funny, about Sarkozy's stare was not that he made no attempt to hide what he was doing, but that he was smirking the entire time. A particular brazenness that oddly is nice to see from the French once in a while.

Cherokee

2009-07-17T16:03:00.003-04:00

Unlike most other other musical genres, one of the wonderful idiosyncrasies of jazz is the sometimes radically different interpretations of the same song by different artists. A favorite traditional of mine is Ray Noble's 1938 piece 'Cherokee.' Written as the first of the five movement Indian Suite, it became a standard by the early '40's after treatments by Charlie Barnet and Charlie Parker. Here are two very different performances by two very different artists. The first is Sarah Vaughan from the late 50's, the second John McLaughlin from the mid '80's.

Blender's worst

2007-05-10T05:40:00.000-04:00

Crazy house of music lists at Blender's, including a list of the 50 worst bands. Most picks are all too deserving of their entries, though a few are more hype let downs than truly awful or boring music acts. A few protestations:

#37 - The Doors

Hard to argue with this assessment:

While in college, many young men still choose to immerse themselves in such ill-advised subjects as Nietzsche, black magic and Native American folklore. Most get over it; Jim Morrison, unfortunately, inflicted his terminally adolescent views on the wider world. The consequences included overblown screeds of nonsense such as "The End" and "The Crystal Ship," plus, effectively, the invention of goth. Then he got fat and died.

However true, the Doors were a great band. They were unique instrumentalists and no one ever said rock lyrics always had to make perfect sense. No band with a stable of songs like "Break on Through," "Light My Fire," "Love Me Two Times," "People Are Strange," and "Riders on the Storm" should be anywhere near a worst 50 of all time list.

#21 The Alan Parsons Project

Ok, so "The Raven" was a little over the top.

Having conquered the Dark Side of the Moon, EMI Records’ beardy staff engineer Alan Parsons decided that what the universe really needed was a prog-rock concept album based on the work of nineteenth-century horror novelist Edgar Allan Poe, narrated by Orson Welles. It didn’t, of course, but an undeterred Parsons soldiered on, swapping prog-rock for vapid AOR in the ’80s.

Half the top ten of this list is comprised of arena and/or prog-rock, so it seems a given these guys were gonna get dumped on. Placing 21st is a little harsh as "Eye in the Sky," "Don't Answer Me," and "Time" were terrific pop songs.

#12 Tin Machine

(Tin Machine) found Bowie voluntarily subsuming his genius beneath chorus-free tunes and guitarist Reeves Gabrels’s habit of playing his instrument with a vibrator.

Another superband with too much talent coming on too strong. No pun intended on the name, but the band was too rigid and mechanical, in both image and sound. Though they were a letdown by Bowie standards, they weren't this bad. Their music was simply unnoticeable.

Incidentally, the worst band according to the list is Insane Clown Posse.

The 50 worst songs list is near perfect. Number one would probably be a more agreed upon pick than the worst band:

#1 Starship "We Built This City (1985)

The truly horrible sound of a band taking the corporate dollar while sneering at those who take the corporate dollar.

... who spend the song carrying on as if they invented rock & roll rebellion, while churning out music that encapsulates all that was wrong with rock in the ’80s: Sexless and corporate, it sounds less like a song than something built in a lab by a team of record-company executives.

More big media woes

2007-05-10T05:33:00.000-04:00

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit and Robert McChesney of Free Press have an interesting back and forth in the L.A. Times on the state of big media. I tend to favor Reynolds' views on media as I have read about, as listened to, them for years on his site. He doesn't argue for the entire dissolution of big media, but he is quick to point out its current transformation into a more integrated and collective news delivery system. Money quote from Reynolds:

Hard-news reporting—actual facts, not opinion—remains the "killer app" for Big Media. But they're not making proper use of their structural advantages there, and those advantages are likely to weaken over time. Already, as I've mentioned, journalists like Michael Yon and Michael Totten are reporting from Iraq with interviews, photos, and video that in many ways surpass the work of virtually all big media reporters. Likewise, local-news websites are starting to challenge local newspapers, taking advantage of drastic cuts in hard-news reporting budgets there.

Right now, traditional media organizations are still in a much better position overall to cover actual news than citizen journalists. They've got the infrastructure, the training, and the experience. But those advantages are eroding daily as technology shifts in favor of smaller operations, and as citizen journalists gain experience and audience. Will Big Media change in time? They will if they're smart—which is to say, probably not.

Jazzy math

2007-05-10T04:24:00.001-04:00

I came across an interesting experiment in sound art that I had once imagined, but never with this kind of clarity. Using different notes to represent numbers 0-9, artist Tom Dulkich sonifies mathematical constants with some incredible results. This one is a piano playing the first hundred digits of pi, complete with a display of the numerical sequence. By adding a bass and a flute to accompany the piano, a much more jazzy feeling is evoked. The piano plays all numbers (except the zero, which serves as the musical rest), the bass plays the low numbers, and the flute the high ones. It sounds like jazz fusion with highly chromatic melodies and almost discernible rhythms. It's a similar experience listening to river rapids. Listen long enough and the chorus of sounds will lead you to believe that a familiar rhythm is about to emerge just as it collapses back into the the noisy chaos. For a more samba feel, try Euler's five constants (1, 0, π, e, i) played simultaneously with a circus of instruments - bass, piano, trumpet, sax, mallets, whistle, and the cuica.

Wikipedia Timelapse - Virginia Tech Massacre

2007-04-26T08:37:00.000-04:00

A fascinating video showing the first twelve hours of the Wikipedia entry on the Virginia Tech massacre.

More than simply a community encyclopedia, Wikipedia is emerging as an information databank. Whether or not the site's factual accuracy matches our traditional encyclopedias (from the studies I've read, it does), more important is the collectivist role it now plays in our society.

Save our chocolate

2007-04-26T07:39:00.000-04:00

It appears that one of our most beloved foods has recently come under siege. The FDA is considering lowering the bar for what it classifies as 'chocolate.' All those crappy holiday knock-offs and cheap foreign candies that don that shiny, waxy coating (often referred to as chocolate flavored, chocolaty, or cocoalicious) may soon enjoy the same legal status as chocolate. No child reared in the Western world would ever confuse the two. One is chocolate, the other 'cheap-chocolate' - and we all know the difference.

Cybele May, who authors one of my favorite blogs in the Candy Blog, has been lobbying against this for some time. She has a terrific article in the LA Times explaining this gustatory affront:

It may be cocoa powder that gives chocolate its taste, but it is the cocoa butter that gives it that inimitable texture. It is one of the rare, naturally occurring vegetable fats that is solid at room temperature and melts as it hits body temperature — that is to say, it melts in your mouth. Cocoa butter also protects the antioxidant properties of the cocoa solids and gives well-made chocolate its excellent shelf life.

Because it's already perfectly legal to sell choco-products made with cheaper oils and fats, what the groups are asking the FDA for is permission to call these waxy impostors "chocolate." Because we "haven't formed any expectations."

I'd say we've already demonstrated our preference for true chocolate. That's why real chocolate outsells fake chocolate. Nine of the 10 bestselling U.S. chocolate candies are made with the real stuff. M&Ms, Hershey Bars, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups — all real chocolate. Butterfinger is the outlier.

PC Wold's most hated tech products

2007-04-17T18:14:00.000-04:00

PC World has just released its list of the 20 most annoying tech products of all time. The list looks quite similar to last year's 25 worst tech products of all time, but it looks like this list was based on reader votes. Whether it's the ubiquitous internet startup discs, or the service itself, readers and editors both concur that the worst and most annoying tech product remains AOL: "the online service for people who don't know any better."

Careful not to strain your neck as you perpetually nod in agreement to the entries on these lists.

Top selling albums of all time

2007-04-12T00:07:00.000-04:00

Keeping track of worldwide sales of albums (technically 'titles,' which would primarily include albums, cassettes, and cd's) has always been a haphazard task. You're likely to see phrases such as 'is believed to have sold' or 'has likely reached' to describe worldwide sales. I found a few different examples in a Wikipedia entry, a short list from Retrodawg, and an highly ambitious and detailed posting from UKMIX forum member Edu.

For a more precise reading (and more relevant to North Americans), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) keeps a fairly up to date list of U.S. sales. This is a reliable list for people to refer to if ever in a bet:

(million units sold)

(29) Eagles - Greatest Hits, 1971–1975
(27) Michael Jackson - Thriller
(23) Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin (IV)
(23) Pink Floyd - The Wall
(21) Billy Joel - Greatest Hits volumes I & II
(21) AC/DC - Back in Black
(20) Garth Brooks - Double Live
(20) Shania Twain - Come On Over
(19) The Beatles - The Beatles
(19) Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Here's the top 100.

In the new age of music proliferation, it's becoming harder to track, and sell, what is soon to be the anachronistic concept of 'albums.' Aside from a little place hopping, I don't see this list changing much. Double Live and Come on Over are both about ten years old, and everything else on the list is at least twenty. Based on the drastic changes in technology and the producer-consumer relationship of the past ten years, the concept of albums (or cd's) will soon fade from the common public, rendering best seller lists like these the equivalent of statistics from a nearly defunct sport.

Library update

2007-04-10T23:29:00.001-04:00

I've updated the sciences page of my library with some terrific finds courtesy of Google video and Cosmos studios. Carl Sagan's Cosmos series, with the exception of three episodes, is up and ready for viewing. There are ten of thirteen posted, each an hour long (plus an excerpt from one of the episodes where Sagan explains the Drake equation - posted below). Interesting that despite the series being nearly thirty years old, the episodes still contains a wealth of very usable knowledge.

A little newer, here's the Black Holes and Beyond episode from Stephen Hawking's 1997 PBS series. Fifth of six episodes, it's the only one I've found so far.

A word from a few cognitive scientists

2007-04-10T19:06:00.000-04:00

The American Scientist has a couple of pieces featuring Douglas Hofstader, author of the 1980 Pulitzer prize winning Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, and a leading thinker in the cognitive sciences. The first is a review by Margaret Boden of his latest book I Am a Strange Loop. This strange loop is a metaphor for how he sees the mind as an emergent property of the brain. Rather than attribute intentionality and consciousness to the composition of neurochemicals, Hofstader focuses on the the unique activity and interaction of these chemicals (as well as ourselves) that gives rise to what we clumsily refer to as 'minds.' He also elucidates, in a tragic example from his own life, how the mind is formed by loops, or interactivity, that suggests it is far more complicated than the image of mere psychological imprints we think of when pondering the functionality of our minds.

The second piece is an interview with Greg Ross on his new book, his old book, and his views on the latest in the cognitive science community. Though he makes a point of not wading into the popular science fiction depths that is certain on the the idea of biology and technology soon merging into a singularity, he does keep a lighthearted eye on it.

Ray Kurzweil says 2029 is the year that a computer will pass the Turing test (converse well enough to pass as human), and he has a big bet on it for $1,000 with (Lotus Software founder Mitch Kapor), who says it won't pass. Kurzweil is committed to this viewpoint, but that's only the beginning. He says within 10 or 15 years after that, a thousand dollars will buy you computational power that will be equivalent to all of humanity. What does it mean to talk about $1,000 when humanity has been superseded and the whole idea of humans is already down the drain?

But as things develop, who knows? Ray Kurzweil and others are predicting that there's a tidal wave coming. But they say it's bliss—it's not bad, it's good, at least if you're surfing it in the right way. If you own the right kind of surfboard, it'll be fun.

Author of The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker has a terrific piece on our history with violence. I remember reading some time ago that despite our wars and homicides, humans' interspecies killing rate fared remarkably well next to other animals. According to the numbers, we are remarkably gentle toward each other. Though common opinion appears to suggest the exact opposite, a quick glance at our evolutionary history, with a greater scrutiny of our preceding centuries, decades, and years, indicates human morality would look like the same kind of hockey stick bar graph we see when looking at things like our rapid population growth. Pinker expands on the possible reasons behind this misperception:

The decline of killing and cruelty poses several challenges to our ability to make sense of the world. To begin with, how could so many people be so wrong about something so important? Partly, it's because of a cognitive illusion: We estimate the probability of an event from how easy it is to recall examples. Scenes of carnage are more likely to be relayed to our living rooms and burned into our memories than footage of people dying of old age. Partly, it's an intellectual culture that is loath to admit that there could be anything good about the institutions of civilization and Western society. Partly, it's the incentive structure of the activism and opinion markets: No one ever attracted followers and donations by announcing that things keep getting better. And part of the explanation lies in the phenomenon itself. The decline of violent behavior has been paralleled by a decline in attitudes that tolerate or glorify violence, and often the attitudes are in the lead. As deplorable as they are, the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the lethal injections of a few murderers in Texas are mild by the standards of atrocities in human history. But, from a contemporary vantage point, we see them as signs of how low our behavior can sink, not of how high our standards have risen.

* In a related piece, law professor Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy looks at our future morality in his post Assessing our Moral Beliefs in Light of Predicted Future Moral "Progress." As always with the Volokh Conspiracy, the best learnin' can be found in the comments where various law professors and other really smart people duke it out.

From Ola Endre Reitstøen's multimedia archive, i found several week's worth of audio files from Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, and my favorite cognitive scientist, Daniel Dennett. Thanks Ola!

I'll be back in a month.

Friday Night Videos

2007-04-07T06:40:00.000-04:00

In a pink Cadillac

As much an image as a genre of music, rockabilly will be forever linked with the sounds and styles of 1950's rock and roll. With it's slight country twang and lively beats, it has enjoyed occasional revivals and permanent influence. It remains one of pop music's most reliable sub-genres.

It all starts with the King. "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Jailhouse Rock."

Elvis' 1968 comeback special featuring one of rock and roll's most influential songs, "That's All Right," with Scottie Moore on guitar and D.J. Fontana drumming a guitar case.

With his distinct rock and roll sound sound (and showmanship), Chuck Berry remains the most influential guitarist of all time. Here's "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven."

The piano, then as symbolic to rock and roll as the guitar, served a much bigger role in the 50's than it does today. Here's Jerry Lee Lewis with "Great Balls of Fire."

A two in one from Carl Perkins, "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Your True Love."

Gene Vincent with "Be-Bop-a-Lula"

Two from my favorite performer of the era, Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day" and "Oh Boy."

Love them or hate them, they kept the rockabilly image from fading. Taking a shot at the hippies, Sha Na Na with "Rock and Roll is here to Stay."

And hey, if it wasn't for them, we might not have had this:

Though the legacy of rockabilly was greatly admired and emulated during the punk years, it seemed to return more to its original sound during the late 70's alongside the new wave scene. Despite being an American invention, it's revival was popular on both sides of the ocean. Here's Britain's Shakin' Stevens with "Green Door" and Rockpile with "Girl's Talk" and "Crackin' Up"

Having worked with guitarists Link Wray, Chris Spedding, and Danny Gatton, no one did neo-rockabilly better than 1970's New York City punk veteran Robert Gordon. Here's a cool live version of "Worryin' Kind."

Even Neil Young got in on the act with "cry, Cry, Cry" and "Wonderin."

So did Queen with "Crazy Little thing Called Love."

The most popular and commercially successful of the new wave of rockabilly bands, the Stray Cats had to get noticed in the U.K. by Rockpile to catch a break. You gotta like a band that can get away with mentioning their name in a song without sounding cheap. "Stray Cat Strut" and the equally cool "I Won't Stand in Your Way."

Strong in the 90's, Chris Isaak with "Wicked Game" (the Wild at Heart version) "Blue Hotel," and the live "Devil In Disguise" with LeAnn Rimes.

The rockabilly sound still showing up, sometimes in weird places. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion with "Bellbottoms" and Mr. Bungle live with "Pink Cigarette."

Still the rockabilly king, Stray Cat Brian Setzer and his big band with "This Cats On A Hot Tin Roof."

And a little rockabilly guitar.

Whither Britannia

2007-04-07T05:34:00.000-04:00

Words of shame for Britain and the 'frightened fifteen:'

Mark Steyn

And I think we have to say that while we all wish we will behave well, and do our country proud if we happen to be taken hostage overseas, if you’re just a traveling salesman or a secretary or whatever, I think we’re all a bit more understanding of that. But I do think when you’re talking about the Royal Marines, that you do expect them to take a name, rank and serial number attitude when they’re actually caught in these situations. And the fact that they appear on these propaganda videos to be willingly going along with this kind of Ahmadinejad leisure wear approach to the situation, I think is deeply damaging.

The point of the matter is that we have effectively let these guys get away once again, with yet one more provocation against the rules of civilized society. And that is not good for us.

Ralph Peters

The once-proud Brit military has collapsed to a sorry state when its Royal Marines surrender without a fight, then apologize
to their captors (praising their gentle natures!) while criticizing their own country. Pretty sad to think that the last real warriors fighting under the Union Jack are soccer hooligans.

Think about Sen. John McCain with his broken limbs undergoing torture in that Hanoi prison - and refusing an early chance to be repatriated because he wouldn't leave his comrades behind. Think he'd do a Tokyo Rose for Tehran?

and again

Look, we're all glad they're home safe, if not necessarily sound. But why on earth is Britain, the land of the legendary stiff upper lip, celebrating cowards who clambered over one another to shame their country?

Wouldn't the Brits do better to make a fuss over the many soldiers of the queen who've served bravely in Iraq and Afghanistan? Why break out the cakes and ale for officers who enthusiastically briefed Iranian propaganda for the TV cameras and who let their subordinates behave as if the Revolutionary Guards were their best pals?

Charles Krauthammer

Iran has pulled off a tidy little success with its seizure and subsequent release of those 15 British sailors and marines: a pointed humiliation of Britain, with a bonus demonstration of Iran's intention to push back against coalition challenges to its assets in Iraq. All with total impunity. Further, it exposed the utter futility of all those transnational institutions -- most prominently the European Union and the U.N. -- that pretend to maintain international order.

You would think maintaining international order means, at a minimum, challenging acts of piracy. No challenge here. Instead, a quiet capitulation.

The quid pro quos were not terribly subtle. An Iranian "diplomat'' who had been held for two months in Iraq is suddenly released. Equally suddenly, Iran is granted access to the five Iranian "consular officials'' -- Revolutionary Guards who had been training Shiite militias to kill Americans and others -- whom the U.S. had arrested in Irbil in January. There may have been other concessions we will never hear about. But the salient point is that what got this unstuck was American action.

The capture and release of the 15 British hostages illustrate once again the fatuousness of the "international community'' and its great institutions. You want your people back? Go to the EU and get stiffed. Go to the Security Council and get a statement that refuses even to "deplore'' this act of piracy. (You settle for a humiliating expression of "grave concern"). Then turn to the despised Americans. They'll deal some cards and bail you out.

and Jack Jacobs

The capture, internment and repatriation of the British sailors and marines can only be described as a shoddy spectacle. From start to finish, the Brits heaped nothing but ignominy on themselves, and one can recall few instances in recent memory in which a group of uniformed service members acted with less professionalism and more dishonor.

From lgf a video of Jack Jacobs on MSNBC:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill

Bathtub sofas or "Moon River"

2007-04-04T06:46:00.000-04:00

I saw this posted on the inimitable Neatorama a few days ago. It's from a Canadian company called Flavour Design which specializes in unique furniture and accessories. It wasn't until I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's again (coincidentally enough, the day after I saw the Neatorama post) that I remembered seeing this before. Audrey Hepburn's character Holly Golightly had one of these in her apartment:

Here's a link if you want to watch the entire movie. A clip of one of the more memorable scenes, Holly sitting on her window ledge playing "Moon River."

The only two Oscars awarded for the movie were to Henry Mancini for the musical score and Mancini and Johnny Mercer for best song ("Moon River"). The song was written in one octave specifically for Hepburn who prepped with vocal and guitar lessons for the scene. Her piano fingers are put to good use as she actually plays the difficult chords used in the song.

On the mating dance

2007-03-28T02:58:00.000-04:00

Psychology Today has always been a magazine more commonly polluted with faux-intellectual relationship foppery than discerning analyses of psychology issues. The magazine is to psychology what Newsweek is to news, but less informative. Relationship Rules is a good example of what one is likely to find. It's a 25 point edict on the rules of a relationship, with important must knows like:

* Cooperate, cooperate, cooperate. Share responsibilities. Relationships work ONLY when they are two-way streets, with much give and take.
* Stay open to spontaneity.
* Maintain your energy. Stay healthy.
* Never underestimate the power of good grooming.
* Sex is good. Pillow talk is better. Sex is easy, intimacy is difficult. It requires honesty, openness, self-disclosure, confiding concerns, fears, sadnesses as well as hopes and dreams.
* Never go to sleep angry. Try a little tenderness.

So much for psychology. Once in a while however the magazine comes through. It's not always chicken soup for the soul stuff. Kaja Perina has a nice long read on Love's Loopy Logic.

Men have a notoriously elastic take on women's romantic receptivity. You might call it a "take-all-prisoners" approach to flirting, so frequently do men presume sexual interest on the part of a potentially available woman. The "She Wants Me" bias serves a convenient purpose for men—it actually increases their sexual opportunities. Because men invest less of themselves in offspring relative to women, it is in their genetic interests to reproduce as much as possible. Therefore, perceptions that promote sexual assertiveness tend to be functional. This inclination doesn't mean the average guy is delusional about his sex appeal, it just means that if he has a great date he will probably report more interest on the part of his consort than she herself reports.

Women, for their part, are biased right back. They skittishly insist that men are more keen on no-strings-attached sex than is the case. This "men are pigs" bias pits suspicious women against oversolicitous men in what Geoffrey Miller, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico, labels a "never-ending arms race of romantic skepticism and excess." It could lead to great repartee: Think Bacall and Bogie, Josephine and Napoleon, Condi and Kim Jong Il.

Much better scholasticism, and advice.

Anti-yoga

2007-03-27T20:01:00.000-04:00

Ron Rosenbaum shares a common sentiment on today's yoga:

It all adds up to what a friend recently called the "hostile New Age takeover of yoga." "New Age" culture being those scented-candle shrines to self-worship, the love-oneself lit of The Secret, the "applied kinesiology"-type medical and metaphysical quackery used to support a vast array of alternative-this or alternative-that magical-thinking workshops and spa weekends. At its best, it's harmless mental self-massage. At its worst, it's the kind of thinking that blames cancer victims for their disease because they didn't "manifest" enough positive vibes.

Friday Night Videos

2007-03-23T06:21:00.001-04:00

80's rap

Though its roots trace back to the mid 70's, it wasn't until the early 80's that rap would establish itself as a mainstream music genre. Often told as the story of disco d.j.'s offering rhythmic wordplay between songs, rap is often overlooked as a tangent of the soul and funk genres. Rap music in the 80's was a name that tune of sampled James Brown and Chic riffs, including the genre's first official hit, the Sugarhill Gang's 1979 tune "Rapper's Delight."

Released a few years later, Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" would also be seen as one of rap's most influential singles.

With the breakdancing craze, rap was given an cool image to go along with the music. The two were near synonymous in the early 80's. Here's Grandmaster Melle Mel with "Beat Street Breakdown" from the popular breakdance movie.

'Don't push me cause I'm close to the edge' - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five with "The Message."

Here's Grandmasters Flash and Melle Mel together with the unique "White Lines." Rap, later to be referred to as hip-hop, would grow from its mere rapping, sampling, and beatboxing stereotype to a genre that would incorporate singing, instrumentation, and genre-mixing.

Another example of a rap song with a singing chorus, Kurtis Blow with "If I Ruled the World."

One of the most influential rap groups of all time, and the first to become a household name, Run DMC with "Its Like That," "It's Tricky" (featuring Penn and Teller), and "Walk this Way" (featuring Aerosmith).

Similar to other other genres, rap music produced a few entertaining offshoots. One was novelty or fun rap like the Fat Boys' "Wipeout" or DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's "Parents Just Don't Understand."

And like other genres, there's a fine line between fun rap and bad rap. MC Miker G and DJ Sven with "Holiday Rap."

Morris Minor and the Majors with "Stutter Rap."

Careful with this guy, you just might get blazed. Viral video sensation Danny Hazen with "Average Homeboy."

Not solely a man's game, the girls got in on the fun too. Here's J.J. Fad with "Supersonic" and Salt-n-Pepa with "Push It."

One of the few 80's groups to remain popular into the 90's, the Beastie Boys were the first (and still one of the very few) white boys on the rap scene. From their 1986 release Licensed to Ill, here's "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" and "Fight for Your Right."

By the middle of the decade, where rap styles were diversifying, so were the individuals creating the music. All these competing personalities also meant heightened levels of suave and swagger.

LL Cool J - "I Need Love"

Kool Moe Dee - "How Ya Like Me Now" (live)

Eric B & Rakim - "Paid In Full"

Young MC - "Bust A Move"

Tone Loc - "Funky Cold Medina"

Maestro Fresh Wes - "Let Your Backbone Slide"

By the late 80's, rap music's image was far removed from the colorful breakdancers shock popping through the harmless graffiti adorned streets. Inner city neighborhoods were nothing like this, even in the early 80's. With a more accurate narrative of the street, bands like New York's Public Enemy were one of the first to give rap music a much angrier and aggressive voice. Here's "Fight the Power" and a live version of "Rebel Without a Pause."

From the West coast, rap would find one of its more popular and controversial sub-genres in 'gangsta rap.' Ice-T with "Colors" and N.W.A. with "Express Yourself" and "Straight Outta Compton."

Pataphysics

2007-03-18T19:23:00.000-04:00

Dictionary.com defines pataphysics as "a supposed branch of philosophy or science that studies imaginary phenomena beyond the realm of metaphysics; the science of imaginary solutions." According to the American Heritage Dictionary, pataphysics is "the French absurdist concept of a philosophy or science dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics, intended as a parody of the methods and theories of modern science and often expressed in nonsensical language."

Again with the French and deconstructionism. Unlike the movements that attempted to swallow history and philosophy, among other academic subjects, this deconstructionism has thankfully been relegated in its entirety to the world of the arts.

The word jumped at me from listening to the Beatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."

Joan was quizzical, studied pataphysical
Science in the home
Late nights all alone with a test tube
Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Googling "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" lyrics resulted in more than a few mistaken substitutions of 'metaphysical' for 'pataphysical.' The above search combined with each word resulted in 600 to 100 returns in favor of 'pataphysical.'

Palestinian sanity watch

2007-03-18T18:21:00.000-04:00

Finally some cracks of resolve in Western response to terrorist minor. Despite the pointless merging of Hamas and Fatah, the U.S. is holding firm in its denial of foreign aid to the Palestinians. The two factions' temporary respite from killing each other is hardly enough of a distraction from their greater jihadist goals.

If that isn't clear enough, how about biting the hands that feeds you? After a botched kidnapping and attempted murder of a U.N. official, it looks like U.N. operations in Gaza will be scaled back. Maybe after billions of dollars and decades of time and energy wasted, the U.N. is finally beginning to notice a lost cause when it sees one.

Time will tell if the BBC will see things the same way. Though they have been extremely generous in their transmission of Palestinian propaganda, it wasn't enough to buy them abduction protection. To date there has been no update on the status of last week's kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston.

Not a good week for the Palestinians - their commitment to barbarity is starting to catch up with them.

Math formulas

2007-03-18T16:54:00.000-04:00

Sure we've all heard of Einstein's e=mc2, but what about Euler's e(to the power of iπ)+1=0? Robert P Crease has an interesting piece on the beauty, and the dark side, of iconic math formulas. A few years ago he held a survey to see his readers' picks for their favorite equations. My favorite, 1+1=2, received a mere half dozen votes. Though not as sexy as other math formulas, it is the most powerful. Not only is our entire understanding of math predicated on this formula, no other idea or concept carries the same kind of universal certainty we attribute to this truth.

* a gallery of Sidney Harris' academic cartoons here

Porn and Pancakes

2007-03-11T00:20:00.000-05:00

I saw this on Saturday Night Live and I thought it was a joke. Apparently, it's not. It's a church based men's club that discusses porn over a pancake breakfast. The group convenes to listen to guest speakers and discuss the negative effects of porn on society and the individual. Their website however is humorously ambiguous in its mission:

A morning filled with straight talk about porn and the issues surrounding porn. From the people who get it. XXXchurch pastors, porn industry insiders and people who have struggled without hope.

Struggled to find the good stuff? Try justabouteverythingyoucanimagine.com. Just so there's no confusion as to who is welcome:

The breakfast is open to men and boys in junior high on up.

Not to be confused with the ads for the male bathhouses. The website is quite succinct with it's frequently asked questions:

Is Porn and Pancakes R rated? No.
Should I bring my son? Yes.
Should my son be 11 years and older? Yes.
Can I bring my dad? Yes.
Should my dad be ready to talk afterwards? Yes.
Why just men? That’s how we started.
What about the women? Were working on it.
Where does the cash go? Pays for the events, resources and more great things at XXXchurch
Will there be nudity? Ahhh, no.
Will we have to sing? No, We promise
Will we have to wear name tags? No.
Do you use Grade A or Grade B syrup? Whatever is cheaper.
Silver dollar or Mickey Mouse pancakes? Silver dollar.
Will you talk about masturbation? Yes.
Will we find help for porn problem? Yes.
Will we learn about personal accountability? Yes.
Will we get to laugh at all? Yes. Trust us there will be some great moments.
What’s the deal with the name? It’s a great way to eat and deal with sin.
Who will be there? People just like you, along with the XXXchurch speaking team.
Can I tell everyone I know? We would hope you do.
Can I bring a camera and take pictures with the porn pastors? Yes.
Can I take notes? Yes.
Do you talk about Jesus? Yes.
Is porn a 57 billion dollar a year business world wide? Yes.
Does Jesus really love porn stars? Absolutely.
Can I bring my men’s group, youth pastors, lead pastors? Yes, yes and yes.
Is porn really killing me? More than you know.
Do I really need to stop looking at porn? Yes.

Well, I agree with them on the pancake issue anyway.

Friday Night Videos

2007-03-09T23:26:00.000-05:00

A T.O. state of mind

Though not quite a city of world class status, the music Toronto has cultivated and exported over the decades could argue otherwise. Some extremely popular acts have not only been raised there, but many international musicians have either nested there or adopted the city as a second home. Two of the more popular radio stations, Q107 and CFNY (especially back in the day), are the best known for playing the homegrown talent, and there's a lot of it.

To start off, the grandaddys of the Toronto rock scene, the Band. Here's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" from a 1976 Saturday Night Live performance.

Led by the unique vocals and the overt lesbianism of Carole Pope, Rough Trade scored their biggest hit in 1981 with "All Touch."

Same band, new name. Martha & the Muffins with "Echo Beach" and M+M with "Cooling The Medium."

The darlings of the early 80's new wave scene, the Spoons with "Nova Heart" and "Romantic Traffic" (staged in a Toronto subway!).

More 80's new wave. FM's "Just Like You," Jane Siberry's "Mimi on the Beach," and Chalk Circle's "April Fool."

Out with the synths, in with distorted guitars. The Pursuit of Happiness became well known with their power pop post-new wave sound. Here's "Killed by Love" and "She's so Young."

From the remains of The Pursuit of Happiness, Universal Honey's "Just Before Mary Goes."

The country-folk-blues sound (I've never been comfortable with the 'roots' label. It's accurate, but awkward.) Here's Blue Rodeo's "Trust Yourself," Cowboy Junkies' "Sweet Jane," and the Skydiggers' "I Will Give You Everything."

If there's a common thread among popular Toronto acts, it's their sense of fun. Videos like Moxy Fruvous' "My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors," Meryn Cadell's "The Sweater," and Len's "Steal My Sunshine" are good examples.

During the 90's, if there's one thing Toronto knew more about than fun it was rock and roll. From indie to punk, classic rock to progressive, clubs like the Horseshoe, the Rivoli, Lee's Palace and the El Mocambo couldn't get enough of these bands.

Treble Charger - "Even Grable"

Tea Party - "Save Me"

hHead - "Flower"

Rusty - "Misogyny"

Our Lady Peace - "The Birdman"

Big Sugar - "Gone for Good"

Terrific 90's rock that stands aside the best of any city. This decade has yet to be as kind, with a few exceptions like Three Days Grace's "Just Like You" and Billy Talent's "Try Honesty" and "River Below."

A little on the softer side, my favorite Toronto soul act the Philosopher Kings' "You Don't Love Me (Like You Used to do)" and my latest indie favs Broken Social Scene with "Cause = Time."

The reigning kings of Toronto rock, Rush with "Limelight" and "Tom Sawyer."

The reigning kings of Toronto pop, Barenaked Ladies with "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" and "Old Apartment."

My all time favorite Canadian band, Toronto's Rheostatics. Unfortunately only a handful of videos exist, but there are couple of gems. The first video is the surreal "P.I.N." The second video is the "The Tarleks" featuring WKRP's Frank Bonner himself.

Grand Canyon skywalk

2007-03-09T12:43:00.000-05:00

Looks like the proposed Grand Canyon skywalk is stirring a little controversy. In yet another battle of 'human footprint' vs 'natural state,' the anti-builders look silly on this one.

A small yet incredible observatory that barely distracts from the scenery. Based on the artist's drawings, it looks like a terrific idea.

This is a better example of how you spoil a natural wonder:

Top 25 South Park moments

2007-03-08T12:00:00.000-05:00

From Rolling Stone magazine, the Top 25 Moments From South Park. First place was the scene where Eric Cartman finally gets the better of Scott Tennerman with his infamous chili.

It's too bad they didn't wait before they compiled their list as this scene from this week's episode would have certainly made it.

That didn't last long - video yanked already. It will be a little hard to find, but it's well worth the search.

From Uber, ten great moments from Borat and the Muppets.

Australian country music

2007-03-06T15:35:00.000-05:00

From the Brisbane Institute, I read an interesting piece by Rae Wear on the politics of Australian country music. Unlike American country music, it doesn't seem to be closely associated with patriotism.

In the Australian context, populism's anti-system, anti-elitist message can be heard in numerous songs describing hardworking farmers forced off the land by a combination of natural and human agents, including banks and politicians. Like populism, country music presents a black and white world: good women and bad; authentic and fake, city and country. In country music, city and country people are portrayed as inhabiting fundamentally different worlds. While country boys and girls may be seduced by city partners, these romances invariably fail and the prodigals
return, with relief, to their country homes. Alternatively, they remain permanent exiles, pining for country homes and family. The Australia of the imagination that they dream of is monocultural, not significantly different from the country described by the bush balladists at the turn of the last century, or the one that Pauline Hanson wanted to retrieve.

In a significantly less populated land, there is going be far less variety in talent as well as tales. Folks of the Outback would be more isolated in their rural surroundings and less familiar with the functioning of their nation. American country music is exceptionally diverse in terms of urban and rural experiences, and as a result, diverse in power and wealth. Though hard working on the ranch remains a dominant theme in country music, consider some of the cities our cowboys do business in: Albequerque, Tucson, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Louisville, Memphis - all cities with populations of a half million or more. Add in the big six from Texas (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth, El Paso), and now you have more than half of Australia's population. The American country music culture has a greater influence in America than its Australian counterpart does there, resulting in a more pro-establishment and patriotic view.

Never need an excuse to add some videos. The first is Australia's unofficial anthem, "Waltzing Matilda," with a little narrative at the beginning. The second is a clip from the 1970 movie Ned Kelly with Mick Jagger singing "The Wild Colonial Boy."

pre-Web

2007-03-03T14:08:00.001-05:00

It's too bad I didn't see this before my Web 2.0 post from a couple of weeks ago. It's a six minute news clip circa 1990 on the latest computer development: the internet. In media res, it serves as a mini documentary on the internet explosion of nearly twenty years ago. At about three and a half minutes in you get a tutorial on emoticons that probably would have confused most of the people at home watching it.

The non-redemption of Ethan Chandler

2007-03-01T00:30:00.000-05:00

By now you have probably seen the viral video of Ethan Chandler and his re-working of 'One.' A banker passionately belting out a pop song about his company, in front of a convention of suits celebrating a corporate merger, seemed almost too absurd to be true.

I thought it was too bad the singer was about to become an internet laughing stock as he had a decent voice and knew how to sing. As it turns out, he has something of a part-time career as a singer with a website, merchandise, gigs, etc. He has made his intention clear that he intends to parlay his internet fame into promoting his own material.

He may want to reconsider:

Skyscraper update

2007-02-26T17:15:00.000-05:00

Interesting article by Philip Nobel on the recent boom of skyscrapers. Once the exceptionalism of North American architecture, skyscrapers are now finding their futures in Asia and the middle east. Nobel sees a particular loss of American spirit when he writes:

The developing world also lacks America’s thriving NIMBY industry—the preservationists, public intellectuals, and grassroots local groups that rally to the call of “not in my backyard.” Westway, an ambitious park and highway plan for Manhattan proposed in the 1970s, still stands as the most significant grand urban project to fall to protest, but the power accumulated by downtown residents in the debate over the future of Ground Zero (and the results they achieved in shaping the project to their needs) attests to the role that public resistance can play in tempering even the most exceptional civic vision. Even if the will were present and the money lined up, a normal American skyscraper, free of symbolic freight, doesn’t stand a chance now to reach an internationally competitive height.

Cost and resistance are part of the story, but the most pressing reason that we won’t soon see a Burj Chicago is more subtle, more emotional: the lack in America’s traditional urban centers of that upstart spirit, a kind of invincible optimism, possibly shading into hubris, that is the birthright of the achieving underdog, and that will move people to pursue what may be an economically irrational goal in order to make their potential known to the wider world. In other words, chutzpah. That spirit was abundant in the past—the Empire State Building so outstripped economic necessity that for years it was referred to as the Empty State Building—but now that typically American quality is flourishing in points East.

Here's a cool poster for sale from SkyscraperPage showing the worlds tallest buildings side by side.

Salience of the norms

2007-02-25T02:56:00.000-05:00

There is a quirky behavior of humans that psychologists refer to as 'salience of the norms,' which is the tendency of people to conform to social patterns, or go along with the crowd. It is a beautifully cold and neutral description of human behavior, though in study it tends to be used in less than flattering examples.

If you you were to walk down the street with the intention of littering, it seems much more comforting to drop your trash where other litter already exists. Others before you have done it, so it must be ok. You take solace in the fact that you weren't the one to step out from the crowd. Booing and hissing terrible theater or an underachieving sports team, an extreme show of disrespect, is much easier to do once others have already started.

This concept is also seen in the broken window theory of crime. Criminal activity seems much more natural in dilapidating neighborhoods. Broken windows, graffiti, and strewn garbage is a symbol and an invitation to those in the sex or drug trades. The broken window theory goes that zero tolerance on the little things will reduce the big things. If people see a clean and orderly neighborhood, they will be less likely to step outside the social norm of non-disruption. Criminals will be less inclined to set up shop.

I found an interesting example of norm salience in this viral video starring a statued replica of Albert, Florida State University's alligator mascot. Ohio State lost in a friendly contest between the two schools and as per the agreement, would allow for the enemy mascot to be placed on their campus. What begins with common civil respect for property ends with Albert literally turned to dust. This display of incremental violence shows how each act of aggression can be easier to perform than the last, leading up to the inevitable conclusion. Thanks to salience of the norms, no one along the chain of events will actually feel responsible for the final result.

I've been noticing the unique school spirit of Ohio State lately. Not only will they quickly do away with enemy incursions onto their campus, they also know how to intimidate you with their marching band.

Friday Night Videos

2007-02-23T08:05:00.001-05:00

70's movie soundtracks

What were the artists of the 60's to do after making some of the most original, memorable, tripped out music of the rock and roll era? Make original, memorable, tripped out movies. Introduced in the 50's, well acquainted in the 60's, in love by the 70's. The marriage of pop music and cinema was made official with movies like the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Tommy, Saturday Night Fever, and Grease.

The first video, the Fifth Dimension's "Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In," is a late 60's tune from the late 60's Broadway hit "Hair." Though the movie wasn't actually released until 1979, it was the popularity of the stage production that helped influence theater and pop music.

Here's the intro to the 1979 flick where you'll hear a slightly longer and funkier version of "Aquarius."

The Who's Tommy was another 60's creation reborn in the 70's. The first video is a 1969 TV performance where they do "Tommy's Holiday Camp," "We're Not Gonna Take It," and "See Me, Feel Me."

The scene from Tommy with Tina Turner as the Acid Queen.

From the Who's lesser known rock opera made to movie, Quadrophenia, here's the scene for the tune "5:15."

From the 1971 oddity 200 motels, Frank Zappa (with Flo and Eddie, and the Mothers of Invention) with "Magic Fingers."

A three minute intro to the movie - crazy even by Zappa standards.

From the 1973 movie Deliverance, "Dueling Banjos."

From the same year, Carl Anderson performing "Superstar" from Jesus Christ Superstar.

Phantom of the Paradise was a 1974 release that brought together Paul Williams' music, Brian De Palma's directing, and 70's cutie Jessica Harper - a cult movie formula if there ever was one. Here she is with "Special to Me" and "Old Souls"

From the movie's coolest scene, rock theatre macabre with the Undead's "Somebody Super Like You" and Beef's "Life at Last."

With full on glam rock and a similar flair for the absurd, the next year would see the release of the most popular cult movie of all time: the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Here's "There's a Light," "Time Warp," and "Sweet Transvestite."

You know I didn't really want to include this, but the song is just that popular. "You Light Up My Life" was the theme song to the 1977 movie of the same name. The movie scene has actress Didi Conn lip-synching Kasey Cisyk's version of the song, though it would be Debbie Boone's version that would become the most familiar.

It's no surprise that during the 70's John Travolta was known by so many names: Vinnie Barbarino, Danny Zuko, Tony Manero. On the big screen or small he had the Midas touch. The soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever would become one of the biggest selling albums of all time thanks to the Bee Gees and the memories of his moves to songs like "You Should Be Dancing."

One of the more popular songs from the movie, the Bee Gees' "Night Fever."

The most endearing of all movie soundtracks, Grease is one of those rarities that
has been popular with each new generation. Despite its 50's hot-rod greaser image and pure 70's pop songs, the movie's playful treatment of high school archetypes singing and dancing away their problems makes the movie timeless. Here's some more Travolta moves with the scene from the school dance-off.

Not so much Travolta dancing, more Travolta posing: "Greased Lightnin'"

Two of the most popular songs from the movie, "Summer Nights" and "You're the One that I Want."

Arguably the best song of the movie, Olivia Newton-John with "Hopelessly Devoted to You."

And one of my underrated favs, Frankie Avalon with "Beauty School Dropout."

A little more high school fun to finish it off. From their 1979 film, the Ramones with "Rock'n'Roll High School" and "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker."

Web 2.0

2007-02-17T06:08:00.001-05:00

I came across this incredible video by Michael Wesch that serves as a tutorial on internet evolution. It teaches about an hour's worth of a lecture in five minutes, outlining the step we've taken from an HTML based internet to an XML one. Even those uninterested or unfamiliar with this kind of scripting will appreciate the visuals alone. Similar to the visible ways our boxes, monitors, and keyboards evolve, so too does our interaction with the internet and the means we use to communicate with it.

Here's a longer explanation on this by Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media and credited with fomenting the concept of Web 2.0.

YUM!

2007-02-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

Fun with stuff

2007-02-10T22:13:00.000-05:00

Fun with words

In light of the fun with numbers of my last post, here's a site dedicated to fun with words. Everything from anagrams and palindromes to malapropisms and tongue twisters - the section on word records dutifully deconstructs a few language mysteries that will always continue to plague us.

* The Longest word mystery. No easy answer here - there seems to be a short list of contenders depending on what one considers reasonable. Excluding chemical or medical terms, as well as purposely long or silly words, the longest would be 'floccinaucinihilipilification,' which means the estimation of something as worthless. At 29 letters, it beats 'antidisestablishmentarianism' by one letter.

* The 'gry' mystery. Angry, hungry, and...? That elusive third word. It looks like there are more than a few plausible answers, but none in common usage. I had taken a certain amount of pride as a kid when I stumbled across the word 'puggry' in the dictionary. Though good for bragging rights, it obviously wasn't the word as there was an alternate spelling ('puggree') and it was exotic (it's Hindi for a kind of scarf worn around the head). There seems to be no definitive answer to this one, though there are several riddles and plays on words that this mystery has spawned.

Paul Brian's online version of his book Common Errors in English. A collection of hundreds of easily overlooked errors including favorite non-words like supposably, anyways, and irregardless. There are enough errors in grammar here that I don't think I want to read my past writings.

Here's that cool wordcount site that ranks words according to popularity. The most popular word is unsurprisingly "the." The least popular (out of 86800 words), "conquistador."

Fun with TV

For my online TV needs, I have a few sites I go to. Though far from comprehensive, and sometimes poor quality or small video players, there's always something on. TV Links and Alluc.org are good starting places. Searching the uploaded collections of specific users on video sites like YouTube, Dailymotion, and Veoh will also lead to you to many popular shows.

Fun with websites

From the always entertaining Neatorama I get not only cool internet gems but also links to other cool neatorama-style sites. In addition to the best optical illusion site on the net, Mighty Optical Illusions, Mental Floss and Say No to Crack have also been daily visits. I've also been spending a lot of time at the Candy Blog.

My lack of posting here lately can be attributed to a couple of other sites I've been working on. My resurrected guitar page and my new Friday Night Videos page, where I can keep my bi-weekly music video postings in one tidy place.

Friday Night Videos

2007-02-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

90's Britpop

It would have been just as appropriate to title this early 90's Britpop as nearly all the best music and the coolest scenes happened well before '95. The first explosion was the Madchester sound that got its start in the late 80's. Chimey psychedelic guitars, swirling Hammond organ sounds, lazy drummer dance beats, and sugary vocals. There wasn't an album review to be found that didn't contain one of these four descriptions. The five biggest bands of the scene, and ones people will always confuse with one another, the Charlatans (UK) with "The Only One I Know," Stone Roses "I Wanna Be Adored," Inspiral Carpets "Bitches Brew," Happy Mondays "Kinky Afro," and James with "Sit Down."

Not quite Madchester, but close. Soup Dragons with "I'm Free," The Farm "All Together Now," Jesus Jones "Right Here Right Now," and Trashcan Sinatras with "Bloodrush."

A worthy successor to the Madchester bands were the shoegazing bands. Basically a thicker, less dance and more brooding version of the earlier sounds. One of the best images of what shoegazing bands are all about is Swervedriver's "Duel." Distorted power chords, lazy vocals, mopey power-pop - all while tripping out in a meadow.

A few other typifiers of the genre, Adorable's "Sunshine Smile," Ride's "Leave Them all Behind" (with a mini interview to start the clip), and the lesser known Revolver with "Cradle Snatch."

The more pop friendly of the shoegazers, Catherine Wheel's "Show Me Mary" and Eugenius' "Blue Above The Rooftops," with I think the only video I've seen with the title tags throughout the entire song.

The Verve was probably the most popular of the bunch, scoring the biggest hit, and probably the death knell for the scene with "Bittersweet Symphony."

From their earlier days, "Blue."

Both featuring dreamy female singers, My Bloody Valentine and Lush were two of my favorites of the genre. The first is the guitar experimental MBV with "Only Shallow," the second the ethereal Lush with "Deluxe."

In light of all the outstanding music pouring out of Britain, it became common to label any good band as not only the previous genre killer, but quite possibly the next Beatles (good luck on that one). Here's some bands that were good but nowhere close to the hype that they were saddled with. Suede's "Metal Mickey" and Pulp's "Common People."

Blur with "She's so High" and Oasis' What's the Story Morning Glory. Blur vs Oasis? Blur, I guess.

Spaceman 3, Spritualized, solo, here, there, sometimes neither. Jason Pierce was Britain's J Mascis, only more space-like. Here's the beautifully haunting "Let it Flow."

Another spacey hit, Mansun with "Wide Open Space."

A little more upbeat, Ash with a couple of tunes featured on movie soundtracks. The first one is the title track from the movie A Life Less Ordinary, the second one "Jack Names the Planets" from the movie Angus.

Without question the kings of 90's Britpop, Radiohead with "Stop Whispering," "Just," and "My Iron Lung."

In case you haven't tired of Thom Yorke's voice yet, here he is teaming up with UNKLE
and DJ Shadow for the Radiohead sounding "Rabbit in Your Headlights."

Giuliani for president

2007-02-08T04:38:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago Alarming News had a post in reaction to a bumper sticker that read "Rudy Guiliani for president." It was about the same time that leading Democratic candidates John Edwards, Barrack Obama, and Hillary Clinton started eliciting strong interest in their campaigns. Again determined to offer up candidates either hopelessly shallow (Obama, Clinton), or utterly futile (Edwards), the Democrats are already having a rough ride as their three stars' histories and associates are being put on full display.

Matched up against the Republican buzz, Guiliani and the always popular John McCain, the Democrats look terrible. Watch as they again try to corroborate an anti-war attitude (which all their radicals prefer) with a pro-war position (which America prefers). Nevermind Hillary or Obama, they just might end up with a default pick and second tier candidate similar to what they chose with John Kerry in 2004. Anything could happen of course, but the signs thus far point to Guiliani as the next president of the United States. Personally, I couldn't be happier.

Here's a good piece on Guiliani from the editors at National Review.

0.999...

2007-01-30T06:59:00.000-05:00

It always seemed like a simple mathematical property that 0.999... equaled one. Though unique in expression, the logic seemed inescapable. There is no number or value you can deduct from 1 that would give you this number, therefore they are equal. What I didn't realize was how contentious an issue this was, especially among news and chat groups. Just a quick search in the sci.math Google group returned nearly 1500 threads that have debated this topic. One with the search capabilities to tackle all the science, math, and computer e-groups worldwide would probably find over a million threads, all with similar bands of resistors up against similar unbeatable proofs. It was this popular debate on Blizzard Entertainment's video game forums that led to their April Fool's press conference a few years ago declaring once and for all that 0.999... does if fact equal one.

Similar debates on message boards have erupted between math amateurs and pros on just about every folk math oddity including infinity, pi, two squared, and the classical geometry problems (doubling the cube, squaring the circle, and angle trisection). If any further proof was needed about our ability to argue the ridiculous or the impossible, I give you the forums of the Flat Earth Society.

English vs French

2007-01-29T09:22:00.000-05:00

Add another literary volume to the great English-French rivalry. David Pryce-Jones reviews Robert and Isabelle Tombs' That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British from the Sun King to the Present. He ends it with a sentiment that has much support on this side of the Atlantic:

In theory, both countries are now members of the European Union, and the old victories and defeats are solely of antiquarian interest. In fact, for the first time in history, France and Germany have teamed up against Britain. This novel combination has driven all national identity underground, to fester more and more resentfully. Surprisingly for contemporary academics, the Tombs couple sense the gathering backlash, and accordingly are surreptitiously Eurosceptic. If the past is any guide, Britain will neutralize and even sink the European Union, thus causing "history's next surprise," in the far-sighted warning of likely upset that closes this book.

In other words, the French will lose yet again. I've written before how I do sympathize to an extent with the French. The past two centuries have not been kind to them, especially compared to their neighbors across the channel. Where they were once considered equals, today they are David and Goliath. The French don't even enjoy the status of number one contender.

To examine the extent of waning French influence on the global stage, I put together a crude spreadsheet comparing the official languages of the United Nations - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish:

It's easy to see why France, and to a lesser extent Canada, place so much importance on the flailing United Nations. A new world alliance based on current geopolitical power could likely exclude French as an official language, and with it any cultural influence.

Friday Night Videos

2007-01-26T16:42:00.001-05:00

On the Ranch

Not the one that's snortin' cocaine, when the honky tonk's all closed
But the one that prays for more rain, heaven knows

To start of, three generations of Hank Williams. The first will be remembered as one of the biggest pop music icons of the twentieth century, up there with Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Elvis Presley, and Bob Dylan. The first video is his early fifties hit "Cold Cold Heart."

A trend that started in the late 80's had the children digitally performing alongside their parents in music videos. Here's Hank Williams Jr. and Sr. with the popular "There's a Tear in My Beer."

With the help of a good banjo, it seems Hank Williams III is a little more country in live settings than his hellbilly image suggests. Here he is with the Damn Band doing a cool hoedown of "Smoke and Wine."

She was the first individual female to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and still its reigning chanteuse. Though she only lived to 30, Patsy Cline became a giant in pop and country music. Here she is performing the Willie Nelson penned "Crazy."

More country divas! Dolly Parton with "I Will Always Love You," Tanya Tucker with "Delta Dawn," and Tammy Wynette with "Stand By Your Man."

Before he became the man in black, Johnny Cash with four songs: "I Walk the Line," "There You Go," "Next in Line," and "Train of Love."

Cowboy hats, plantation style ties, and haystacks - now that's country. Ernest Tubb performing "Tomorrow Never Comes" with Billy Byrd on guitar.

Speaking of guitar, country music virtuosos are often overlooked next to their classical, jazz, or metal cousins. Here's a few examples of hot country guitar; Chet Atkins with "Humoresque," Jerry Reed with a smokin' five minute medley (endure the half minute banter at the beginning with Porter Wagoner and the slow intro, at about the 1:45 mark you'll that classic 'chickin pickin' sound, Leo Kottke and Doc Watson with "The Last Steam Engine Train," and Albert Lee with "Fun Ranch Boogie."

I've always preferred Western over Country, stompin' cowboy tales over twangy love songs. Stories like Ned Kelly, White Mansions, and yes, The Gambler. For a Western jam, it doesn't get any better than the Highwaymen. Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson performing "The Highwayman."

Here's Waylon on his own with probably the coolest tempo change in country music in "Honky Tonk Heroes."

And the coolest fiddle in country, the Charlie Daniels Band with "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."

He's hardly recognizable in the first video, but it's 1967 Willie Nelson with "Night Life." The second video has him in full hippie persona with fellow country hippie Neil Young for the terrific 80's hit "Are There Anymore Real Cowboys."

So these are certainly not the cowboys Willie and Neil were singing about, but they are the new breed of country music. Billy Ray Cyrus with "Achy Breaky Heart," Garth Brooks with "The Dance," Tim McGraw with "Memory Lane," and Shania Twain with "Up."

Schizophrenic art

2007-01-23T14:34:00.000-05:00

One topic I did an interesting study on in my earlier years was comparing the artistic expressions of various mental pathologies. To little surprise, the art created by schizophrenics was the 'busiest' and most provocative of the lot. I wasn't able to locate any of the pieces I used back then but I did find some equally impressive ones now. The first series is from artist Karen Blair, who also has a blog. She has catalogued her gallery corresponding to the years she was on particular medications. In order of Risperdal, Zyprexa, and Seroquil:

Hell

Electricity Makes You Float

What Jack Saw

These paintings are from a website put together by a father for his son John. It's also a touching chronicle of his perception of his son's illness. As dazzling as John's abstract paintings are, most impressive is the detail in his faces.

From an exhibit at the History of Medicine In Lund, Sweden, here are a few pieces from patients of the pre-psychopharmacological drug era. Works from Maria Magdalena Rudbeck, Rudolf Persson, and Clara Miranda Almér are shown here:

From Erik Lombardo I discovered William Kurelek and Louis Wain, two artists who came across schizophrenia at different stages of their lives. Kurelek's onset was early and he was able to overcome his torment - this page has terrific samples from his remarkable descent into madness and back. Here is one of his more popular pieces - The Maze:

Louis Wain was a popular postcard and children's book illustrator known for his cats. Unlike Kurelek, Wain developed schizophrenia later in life and was never able to recover. Two before and after pieces show the changes in the artist:

During my research I found this oddity in Wikipedia's entry on schizophrenia. Look at the end of the third paragraph. I took a snapshot before the page gets edited as I don't think it will remain:

No more dynasties

2007-01-23T07:06:00.000-05:00

It's not too often you read an article on Clintons and Bushes without partisan snark or bias, especially in the LA Times. James Burkee, true to the middle, is critical of further explorations of Clinton and Bush power in (over) Washington. In his article Anybody but a Bush or Clinton (which is currently being linked to by both right and left wing blogs), he outlines the absurdity of what may await:

But if (Hillary) secures the Democratic nomination, wins and serves two terms, by 2017 the United States will have been governed by either a Bush or a Clinton for 28 years. That's three decades governed not just by the same two families but much of the same supporting staff.

And it might not end there. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, encouraged by Republican leaders and the current president (who said, "I would like to see Jeb run at some point"), has not ruled out a White House bid or a vice presidential slot on the ticket in 2012 or 2016.

If Washington's caustic, partisan atmosphere is to change, the era of Bushes and Clintons needs to end in 2008.

Not only is this phenomenon increasing the divide between the Republicans and Democrats, and consequently the political culture of the nation, it also makes the United States look medieval. All that American talent and enterprise and the best the Beltway can produce are families comprised of either self-serving con artists or ineffectual frat boys. Burkee notes the weak political capital dynasty presidents are likely to bring to power and observes:

Pundits compare 2006 to the late Nixon years, with a country disillusioned by war and a deep distrust of its political leadership. In one of his last interviews, former President Ford lamented the "extreme partisanship that exists in the nation's capital today," suggesting that partisanship is even worse than in the post-Watergate era he inherited.

The nation needs today, as it got in Ford then, a president respected by both Republicans and Democrats who can restore trust in politics. It needs new faces and new ideas if it is to confront advancing crises of war, debt and entitlement reform. And it needs a president who can assume office in 2009 swimming in the political capital that only a mandate can bring. The nation needs a candidate who can win 55% or more.

And that will not happen with a Bush or Clinton on the ballot.

I would also add that we should think of the children, the children of the future that is. Children in history classes decades or centuries from now will have an impossible time trying to sort out which Bush or which Clinton was responsible for what, especially when it comes to issues like military intervention in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Poking the music industry

2007-01-18T21:24:00.000-05:00

I have to admit I enjoy seeing big business trip over itself when it comes to music. Though I'm likely to defend corporations in general, big music industry somehow bothers me. I understand the concept of music as commodity, assigning it market value, and aggressively marketing it. I also disdain however the constant deluge of crappy or meaningless art, as well as the manipulation of both artists and audiences by record companies. Like other expressions of art, it's vindicating to see instances of the "big guy" not getting it. One item I saw lately with respect to this was this head scratcher 'Napster Buys Aol.' I'm certainly anybody's fool when it comes to music marketing, but it looks like another case of the whole being less than the sum of its parts. Two dinosaurs that just increased their chances of extinction.

The second item I saw is more of a nitpick than a music industry gaffe, but it brought about a similar schadenfreude. Sympatico/MSN's music store offers a 60 song one hit wonder compilation. With any of these kind of compilations, there is always room for dispute as to the inclusion of particular entries, but some are truly mind boggling. From the list, I found more than a few discrepancies, as well as some sloppy site content management:

Wang Chung - "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" ("Dance Hall Days" was their first and arguably more popular hit. Definitely a two hit wonder - 2hw.)

Various Artists; Various - "Funkytown" (I think by 'Various Artists; Various' they mean Pseudo Echo)

C+C Music Factory - "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" (2hw - "Here We Go, Let's Rock & Roll")

Various - "Got To Be Real" (This 'Various' is probably Cheryl Lynn)

Kon Kan - "I Beg Your Pardon" (2hw - "Harry Houdini")

Tripping Daisy - "I Got A Girl" (2hw - "Pirahna")

Three Dog Night - "Joy To The World" (Huh? "One," "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)," "Celebrate," "An Old Fashioned Love Song," "Never Been to Spain"...)

Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - "Lost In Emotion" (Not at all their only hit. They are still best known for their 80's classic "Head to Toe")

The B-52's - "Love Shack" (Another terrible entry. What about "Planet Claire," "Rock Lobster," or "Roam"?)

- "Not an Addict" (The artist for this song was left blank. I guess not so unknown 90's act K's Choice was beyond MSN's research capabilities)

Sinead O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U" (Perhaps the worst entry on the list. No disputing it was her biggest hit, but it was far from her only one. "Mandinka," "Emperor's New Clothes," "I Am Stretched on Your Grave," "I Want Your (Hands on Me)," and "Troy" were all popular hits.)

The Psychedelic Furs - "Pretty In Pink" (2hw - "Heaven")

Thomas Dolby - "She Blinded Me With Science" (2hw - "Hyperactive")

Berlin - "Take My Breath Away" (2hw - "No More Words")

Limahl - "Too Shy" (We can overlook the movie theme "Never Ending Story")

Spin Doctors - "Two Princes" (2hw - "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong")

Oingo Boingo - "Weird Science" (2hw - "Dead Man's Party")

The Romantics - "What I Like About You" (2hw - "Talking in Your Sleep")

The Tubes - "White Punks On Dope" (What about "She's a Beauty" or "Tip of My Tongue"?)

Some list - nearly a third of it weak choices or mislabelled entries, and those are only the ones I caught. With all the actual one-hit wonders out there, there's no excuse. I know dozens of people that could put together a better list, and none of them work for the music industry.

Jimmy Carter: terrorist stooge

2007-01-18T00:24:00.000-05:00

For some time it has been known that ex-president Jimmy Carter has been a supporter of the Palestinians in their struggle against Israel. While he offers the occasional token support for democratic Israel, his true heart lies with a society that has fashioned itself as a terrorist pawn in the larger Jihadist movement. His latest book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, and subsequent interviews makes his bias perfectly clear.

What most people suspected was that Carter was simply a doofus who bought into Arab propaganda about the perpetual mideast crisis. "If only they had some land to call their own" was and still is the popular mantra of this deception. Perhaps Carter was so generous with his tolerance that he truly believed in the nobility of Arab intentions, if not their words. Decades of terrorism later, he still hasn't changed his mind.

Lest he be cast as a lone villain, many others of his political persuasion hold similar views toward Israel and the Palestinians. It was assumed Carter was among the batch of useful idiots that couldn't distinguish a progressive democracy from a grotesque death cult. Perhaps this is still true, but it would seem another factor might be responsible for Carter's oversight of terrorist minor.

From the Belmont Club I came across this article by Alan Dershowitz that describes the Arab dollars that have made their way into Jimmy's pocket. Ex-presidents for sale is not uncommon, but it wasn't assumed the market included enemies of the West. Belmont Club commenter Cosmo put it perfectly:

Always follow the money. Always.

Some folks actually believe that opposition to the invasion of Iraq by Europe's political establishment and at the UN was animated by principle, instead of by fear of losing the lucrative organized crime concession they were running in Messopotamia.

Carter could have preserved his image of idealistic naif had he confined himself to Habitat For Humanity and similar endeavors following his disastrous presidency.

The national heart would by now have grown a warm spot for him and largely forgotten the cardigan sweaters and whiff of decline he brought to the planet's most important office.

But the longer he continued to insinuate himself into the national political scene, the more obvious his fraudulence has become.

* Read the Belmont Club post, it's an interesting look at how Washington is functioning more as the world's capital rather than America's.

Here's a terrific essay I posted a couple of years ago from Dershowitz on the legacy of terrorist Arafat.

Little Green Footballs has been all over Carter lately. This is only the last month:

- Jimmy Carter Interceded for Nazi Murderer

- Dershowitz to Rebut Carter at Brandeis

- Jimmy Carter on Al Jazeera: Palestinian Missiles Are Not Terrorism

- Former Carter Center Member: Jimmy Supports Palestinian Terrorism

- Mass Resignation at Carter Center

- Jimmy Carter and the Arab Lobby

Friday Night Videos

2007-01-12T23:50:00.000-05:00

Electronica

First and foremost, the group responsible for every uber German techno automaton stereotype, Kraftwerk. The first video is the popular "Autobahn," released in 1974, with animation added by Roger Mainwood in 1979. It is credited as being the first popular song of electronica music. The second video is Kraftwerk's early 80's release "Tour de France." The video is a little dull (just cyclists, nothing else), but about 20 seconds in you hear what is probably electronica's most familiar melody. It was surprisingly a popular song with breakdancers.

On the topic of breakdancing, here's an 80's classic from Herbie Hancock with "Rockit." With its beats, shock pops, and the best scratching solo ever, it remains the anthem of the early 80's breakdancing movement.

If you prefer humans instead of robots dancing the robot, try Break Machine's "Street Dance."

The Art of Noise's "Moments in Love" is one of the most haunting and ethereal songs in pop music. The video is for the radio friendly four and a half minute version. I have a ten minute mp3 version that still doesn't seem long enough.

On the heavier side, Ministry's "Over the Shoulder" and Skinny Puppy's "Dig It."

This is what happens when you mix electronica with a hippie. The Orb's early 90's hit "Little Fluffy Clouds."

While "electronica" would become a sub-genre of the rave scene, electronica sounding music would become more mainstream with a greater presence on the pop charts. A few progenitors of the movement, Tricky with "Black Steel," Chemical Brothers' "Block Rockin Beats," Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up," and Moby's "Porcelain."

With their unique grooves and pure pop melodies, my favorite electronica act is Air. I was hooked with these two songs from their debut Moon Safari, "Sexy Boy" and "Kelly Watch the Stars."

Here's another with an over-catchy pop melody, Ladytron's "Play Girl."

This one is just odd. Australia's the Avalanches with "Frontier Psychiatrist."

Had to include probably my favorite song when I think of electronica, the Chemical Brothers and the Flaming Lips with "The Golden Path."

And last a couple of freaky offerings from Sweden's Naked Ape. The first video, "Fashion Freak," was one of the inspirations behind this weeks electronica theme. They seem to like using sexy zombies in their videos. They do the same with the second video, the much weaker "Undo Redo."

The Devil wears GapKids

2007-01-04T03:07:00.000-05:00

Lynx and Lamb Gaede, the most adorable teen sister pop act on the scene. Note their angelic smiles:

Here's a video for their song "Bleed For You," a sleepy little folk number:

Hard to believe they're one of white supremacism's most recent messengers. They are the demon seeds of a couple from the National Vanguard, a nation wide white power movement. From a marketing perspective, kudos. If you're going to go Aryan, go full out, and these little sirens are perfect. Lest anyone believe they are a front, in their own words:

I think, you know, if there was a war between the races, hopefully everybody will get their own little space. And that's basically what we want, you know? So we don't have to live with the other groups.

People want to depict everything that happened in World War II Germany as marching around killing Jews. They don't want to understand how the whole ideology of National Socialism is really a beautiful thing. I mean, it really is. I don't deny that Jewish people died and were rounded up and put into camps, but I don't think it's as drastic as they say.

(We're) not having enough white babies born to replace ourselves and generally not having good-quality white people being born. It seems like smart white girls who have good eugenics (sic) are more interested in making money in a career or partying than getting married and having a family.

Part of our heritage is Prussian German. Also our eyes are blue, and Prussian Blue is just a really pretty color. There is also the discussion of the lack of "Prussian Blue" coloring (Zyklon B residue) in the so-called gas chambers in the concentration camps. We think it might make people question some of the inaccuracies of the "Holocaust" myth.

Nobody of serious mind is influenced by the bigotry cum fascism on display, but of greater interest is what the road ahead looks like. Their music, though insipid and weak, isn't terrible. It's likely that their talent will see them produce passable pop material in the near future. With the media's, and our own, ghoulish instincts taking over, we may just decide to follow their lives with the same tact and discretion we've reserved for the Olsen twins and other freaky families. From the scorn and ridicule to the shame, the guilt and depression to the drugs, the relapse to the talk shows to the book deal to the asylum, their careers should be interesting to watch.

Some buzzy links

2007-01-04T02:01:00.000-05:00

From WallStreetFighter:

- some cool photo posts; the world's stupidest tattoos, signs you're spending too much time on the internet, and a series of pictures of the Wall Street Bull with various picture takers. Note the well worn areas on the bull's scrotum due to repeated human touch.
- a site dedicated to the well known phenomenon of hot chicks with douchebags.
- Little Becky, the popular 8 year-old prank caller with an adorable Irish accent and incredible wit.

From the always dependable Ebaum:

- coffee art:

- sand art:

- and fork art

From Neatorama:

- the world's five smallest countries (Vatican City, Monaco, Nauru, Tuvalu, and San Marino)
- a Christmas card, contained in the following envelope, actually made it to its destination:

- a link to DoCopenhagen's top 50 music videos of 2006 (all embedded and ready to go). Number one was a favorite viral video of '06, OK Go's "Here it Goes Again"

I first saw these guys last year when they came out with this video for "A Million Ways." Strangest thing, the band dancing together like this for a music video. Nothing compared to dancing while using treadmills however.

And from the aptly named Moronland:

- 50 amazing ads you haven't seen, Hollywood coding myths, 5 math jokes, and the classic, possibly apochryphal, Niels Bohr and his physics exam.

Tony Snow vs Old Media

2007-01-02T20:10:00.000-05:00

Here's a clip of White House speaker Tony Snow at a press conference discussing the recent medical reports on First Lady Laura Bush. It seems she had a small, cancerous skin lesion on her leg removed in a routine operation. Despite the fact that she seems to be healing just fine, the press caught the scent of blood and swooped in for the kill. No matter the benign procedure, or the fact that she is entitled to complete medical privacy, the press mercilessly drilled Snow with question after question, not so much about her recovery, but about the apparent secrecy of the Bush administration in yet another 'cover-up.' If any more proof was needed that the media is still locked in Watergate mode, here it is. Everything is a secret, dark operatives lurk everywhere, spooks on the inside, spooks on the outside. Little wonder so many people buy into so many conspiracy theories, they have to go no further than popular media to cite their proofs.

As White House speaker, I could get to like Tony Snow as much as I liked Ari Fleischer (2001 to 2003). Like Fleischer, Snow is witty and quick on his feet. His past as a media veteran gives him an advantage Fleischer or previous speaker Scott McClellan never had. He'll need this to deal with a pack of reporters more interested in political spin than the transmission of information. Hard to believe that White House reporters, one would think among the best of their craft, behave in such a debasing and tabloid manner. Considering the overall decline in old media revenue, perhaps this is the best the talent pool has to offer.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-20T00:50:00.000-05:00

A little collection of holiday fun from the net. First a few of my favorite music videos:

Fairytale of New York from the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl. Who would have thought that a smokey barroom could fit so well in a Christmas video:

The wonderfully cheesy Jingle Bell Rock from Hall and Oates with G.E. Smith as the guitar playing granny:

Run DMC's colorful Christmas in Hollis:

And the classic Bing Crosby and David Bowie:

In the interest of bizarre pairings, here's Dennis DeYoung and Billy Corgan with a string quartet. Sometimes the whole can be less than the sum of its parts:

Urban legend site Snopes gets busy this time of year. Latest Christmas conspiracies include the healing Santa, Santa's Canadian postal code, where the Salvation Army bell-ringers' money goes, and the story of Carson Williams' extraordinary Christmas display lights. Here's a clip of his work:

For the kids, here's Norad's Santa Tracker.

Not for the kids, here's MAD TV's classic mafia Rudolph episode:

From my bro, 101 (and counting) Christmas TV specials, sitcom episodes and music videos from The Christmas Spot.

The official homepage of McAdenville, North Carolina, a.k.a. Christmas Town USA.

This buzzy stop-motion clip of worker Legomen set to the Flaming Lips' "Christmas at the Zoo":

And that classic coke, or is that coke classic, commercial:

Political tidbits

2006-12-18T03:25:00.000-05:00

Terrific piece from Doug Bandow contrasting Russia and China. Adopting slightly different versions of communism and authoritarianism, one continually flirts with disaster while the other is on the brink of superpower status. Bandow touches on the political and economic state of each nation while giving a description of their Washington based visa offices. Pity Russia:

The visa room is minuscule. Two chairs sit behind a small table. If you filled the rest of the room, the crowd would number about 20 standing shoulder to shoulder. There just aren't a lot of Americans seeking to jet off to Russia.

Hail China:

The Chinese have a genuine waiting room. Two or three dozen chairs are set in rows. Grabbing a number is a must; when I foolishly arrived on a Monday I found a mob scene, standing room only. The wait was more than an hour. The security guard suggested coming on Wednesdays, when the delay typically was shortest. At least the pick-up line moved more quickly.

Judith Stein offers a more detailed look at Russian economic practice.

This back and forth between Will Hutton and Meghnad Desai is interesting. Hutton argues that without certain freedoms, such as the right to own property or participate in civic audit, personal ambition will always be stunted and Chinese enterprise will suffer. Desai argues that China is just fine the way it is and it need not adopt Western values to become a success. Curiously, he takes a shot at America's relationship with Israel in his disdain for the West.

What would the world look like if America lost it's superpower status? Paul Starobin considers four interesting possibilities.

Victor Davis Hansen on his Bizarre Libyan Holiday. Brimming with facts from the archaeological to the political, it reads like a mini textbook on Libya.

Daniel Pipes, Tommy Franks and others on what to do with Iraq.

Who's Middle East?

2006-12-13T00:34:00.000-05:00

When terrorists and the Western left talk about eliminating Israel and granting the people's 'right of return,' are they referring to the Macedonians or the Mongols?

Here's another map that shows American wars and the political parties that led them there. Interesting that Democrat led wars have cost more American lives - quite a few more it would seem.

Link courtesy of hAxOr.

Science tidbits

2006-12-07T04:07:00.000-05:00

Remember those hand sensor computer screens that Tom Cruise used in Minority Report? Here is what looks like a precursor, plasma screens that allow for incredible touch manipulation:

Aimbot delivers this cool video that shows very colorfully the inner life of a cell:

Reminds me of the java animation I posted a couple of years ago that journeys from the edge of the galaxy to the quarks inside an atom. Of course I found it on YouTube:

For some good stoner grade philosophy on the 'meaning of it all,' read the some of the comments that follow the video. It actually starts off with someone posting 'all we are is dust in the wind.' Goes pretty much downhill from there.

National Geographic reports that Mars does indeed have water. Though it hasn't actually been seen yet, the idea of a wet Mars was furthered by the examination of erosion activity on the surface. Evidence of recent topological changes suggested flowing water. If this photo doesn't prove it, I don't know what will:

It might be that only that little buggy can tell us whether Mars really has the goods.

Atlantic magazine's most influential Americans

2006-12-06T00:37:00.000-05:00

The Atlantic has their list of the 100 most influential figures in American history. The top 4 is pretty obvious (Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, F.D. Roosevelt), after that it's anybody's list. Ralph Nader's entry, at number 96, offers a little wit:

He made the cars we drive safer; thirty years later, he made George W. Bush the president.

Here is the list of actual living Americans who received votes. Only three entries (Bill Gates, James D. Watson, and Ralph Nader) made the overall hundred.

Not done with coloring the states

2006-11-29T04:18:00.000-05:00

An interesting look at two maps:

Are conservatives more generous than liberals? Evidence is hardly served by the above maps, but this idea is not without advocates. Arthur C. Brooks' Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism has again challenged the liberal notion that they are the true stewards of the indigent and needy. Ben Gose in an article for philanthropy.com reviews his book here (also the page where I grabbed those maps).

Reason's Tim Cavanaugh dismisses the book as a left-wing hit job.

The Volokh Conspiracy's Jim Lindgren has the definitive post on this.

The Wikipedia Knowledge Dump

2006-11-24T05:37:00.000-05:00

Now that's esoterica. A site dedicated to the rejected entries of the popular on-line encyclopedia. The motto says it all:

From the bold to the beautiful, from the wicked to the wise, every day the Wikipedia team relegates possibly "inappropriate" submissions to the garbage dump of time. Here, we make selected rejects immortal and preserve them for posterity.

Excellent. You can imagine the entries: Satan Claus, the dark lord who truly presides over our most joyous holiday; there's exophilia and coulrophilia, extreme sexual attractions toward aliens and clowns; the Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit, a Richard Dawkins argument refuting the existence of God.

The creator of the site is physicist Cliff Pickover, an interesting fellow who actually has a bio in Wikipedia. No mention yet of his new project.

One interesting piece I found on Wikidumper (not every post is a Wikipedia reject) was a discussion about Susan Kruglinski's article in Discover magazine about tracking the changes made in one of Wikipedia's entries. The entry was evolution, and at the time of the article there had been over two thousand changes made to the entry by 68 different people. An IBM research team actually laid this 'evolution of evolution' out in a graph to show the changes:

Interesting how it looks exactly like the southwest corner of the United States.

I've been addicted to Pickover's pile of links on his site, especially his growing list of fascinating people and the Alien Tiles Puzzle.

Today's future

2006-11-22T05:45:00.000-05:00

Wow.

Our future desktops. I found the images from this site. I have thus far been unsuccessful hunting down any information about it.

Jazzin' it up

2006-11-20T10:35:00.000-05:00

Welcome Back!

I have retired bluestarblog for good, and like the description suggests, this will be my temporary site. Though I will continue to write about politics and (what should be) our support for the war, this site will not be the bloodthirsty warblog my last site obviously was. To start things off on a lighter note, here's one of my favorite guitarists Stanley Jordan with "Jumpin' Jack":

One of my diversions lately has been watching videos of guitar virtuosos from different genres and in a variety of settings - on stage, in a music store, at home, or giving lessons. My playing has significantly improved thanks to these videos.

First off, the shredders:

Matthew Mills

Michael Romeo

Paul Gilbert

Buckethead

And a little acoustic romp:

John McLaughlin

Erik Mongrain

Michael Hedges

Justin King

Scot

Playing in Space

Some variations on performers and audiences

Friday Night Videos

Fun with trailers

Cold War Nostalgia

Behind things

Aging

Friday Night Videos

Record industry vs music industry

Beatles overload

Seize the dynamic images and eye movements

Video and album covers

Indian sci-fi

Mazes

Friendship

Unusual acid trips

Friday Night Videos

Strangers

Some unique people

Is classical music dead?

2010 music round-up

Friday Night Videos

A little holiday pi

More fun with maps

The United States of Autocomplete

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

Element soup

Battle of the hillbilly covers

Too bad they both didn't lose

Friday Night Videos

Here rest some of these men

World of justice

Uncommon Knowledge

Again with the chicken and the egg

100 Worst Songs Ever

Gardens of mental delight

Oxford dictionary's most disappointing 2010 entries

Can you count to two thousand?

Reality 2.0

Colors

No square Diamond

Not feeling it

Greater Robert Baden-Powell

Politics and perception

Cherokee

Blender's worst

More big media woes

Jazzy math

Wikipedia Timelapse - Virginia Tech Massacre

Save our chocolate

PC Wold's most hated tech products

Top selling albums of all time

Library update

A word from a few cognitive scientists

Friday Night Videos

Whither Britannia

Bathtub sofas or "Moon River"

On the mating dance

Anti-yoga

Friday Night Videos

Pataphysics

Palestinian sanity watch

Math formulas

Porn and Pancakes

Friday Night Videos

Grand Canyon skywalk

Top 25 South Park moments

Australian country music

pre-Web

The non-redemption of Ethan Chandler

Skyscraper update

Salience of the norms

Friday Night Videos

Web 2.0

YUM!

Blogrolling

Fun with stuff

Friday Night Videos

Giuliani for president