Funny, tho.

The amazing DJ Earworm mashes up the Billboard Top 25 of 2008 into about 5 minutes of video.

I far prefer his production & editing work to most-or-all of the underlying compositions.

Good thing there are Fair Use laws...




Then there is this wonderful ten-minute piece of history: ABC News' show 20/20 doing a story on that new genre of music called "Rap"- which aired in 1981:



Part 2:



"Rap is likely to be with us for many years to come."

Damn, this shit is dope.

Here is a really great ASL translation translator performance of Marilyn Manson's "The New Shit". It makes me happy, it makes me sad, it makes me want to fund a whole bunch of work like it.




No new news on me- the job hunt is looking good, but nothing in hand yet.

How do you fight depression?





TMBG is always a win.

Warren Zevon jamming on "Boom Boom Mancini" in Boston's South (Train) Station in 1995. I don't know if he was busking. Wouldn't surprise me.



Dang that man could play geetar. Oh, and write.

Now here is some just straight up show off stuff: The Chester & Lester show- Chet Atkins & Les Paul.



There is some wacky music for sale on DVD at http://www.cinefear.com/snv.html if you just scroll down a bit.

Director Kevin Smith on the Superman movie he didn't get hired to write. Among other things, the producer wanted a black, gay R2D2 and a "Giant goddamn spider..."

Check it out:

Sigh... Does anyone in Wellington have a spare, older style, non-magnetic Powerbook AC adaptor?

Which is ironic- as I point out every year- as the origin of May first as International Workers day lay in the fact the labour movement as it is now recognised "coalesced" in Chicago.

Go read details here if'n you haven't before or need a reminder.

Y'know folks... as I am now a resident of New Zealand, I think this may be my last time posting that one.

I am not sure I'll stop commemorating the about May 4th (1970) Massacre, though. I think that one impacted my early peace freak brain too heavily.

MSNBC is blocking the link, please go here: http://is.gd/rPgZ

Did I laugh out loud? Well... not precisely. But I smirked audibly.

'Cos I like Sci Fi Rock!



Klaatu... Check out more of their Scifiprogaliciousness.



See, the thing is Brian May of Queen really is an astrophysicist, thus they can have a correct cool-sad-sentimental song about the effects of relativity.

( Sad lyrics behind cut )
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Anybody out there got any other favourite Science Fiction rock?

I am getting a bit tired of over use of "apocalypse" to describe the current economy.

It is a "depression". It is not an "apocalypse".

If we get to the point of financial "apocalypse"- as almost happend back on September 20th- you'll know. Really.

Besides, technically, an "apocalypse" (אַחֲרִית הַיָמִים) is a cataclysm where "God" destroys the ruling powers of evil.

I, for one, feel that massive cash bailouts are in fact somewhat different than total annihilation from on High.

Live at the Nashville Rooms 1977, first ever performance as Elvis Costello & The Attractions. With Intro by Dave Robinson.

Which gets me thinking about how utterly amazing the line up on Stiff Records was back in the alleged day.

Have another Stiffy:



In my very unhumble opinion I consider Stiff to be the most important record label of the post disco era. Well, actually, really of post 1958. They have- for my tastes- the highest "hit-to-flop" ratio of any label, anywhere.

For my personal value of "hit"!

Bands included (I am excerpting from Wikipedia here):
The Belle Stars, Joe "King" Carrasco, Elvis Costello, Devo, The Damned, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Dave Edmunds, The Feelies, Richard Hell and The Voidoids, Lene Lovich, Nick Lowe, Madness, Kirsty MacColl, Motörhead, Graham Parker and The Rumour, Pink Fairies, Plasmatics, The Pogues, Tenpole Tudor, Tracey Ullman, Wreckless Eric, Yello and a ton of others.

Styles all over the map from rockabilly to punk to early electronica to ska, to...

I try to limit myself to posting two vids at a time. Go look at some of these for yourselves if you have time.

Amazing, 7 minute and fifteen second, live version of "Hold On, I'm Coming". Sam & Dave backed by Booker T & the MGs (& the MarKays horns if I'm not mistaken.)




Wow.

Yes- that is the same Donald Duck Dunn and Steve Cropper that were later in the Blues Brothers.

Green Onions bonus round:



Were Booker T and the MGs the first major integrated rock band? I think Goodman's band was integrated by 1933, but rock was a different hurdle. Or was it?

Thanks dodgingwndhslds!

AllRoy Sez:



I was in the studio consulting on the knob twiddling when the studio version of this was being recorded. It is in fact possible that I produced and ran the show this clip was recorded at. It was a long time ago, though and I would need to know who opened to be sure.

As the guy from the record label who oversaw the creation of the album this was on, I should technically have gotten an executive producer credit for booking the studio, making sure the bills were paid and the tapes ( we used tapes back then) got to the mix down and thence to the pressing plant.

Alas, SST didn't work that way. Greg didn't want people getting credit and even bitched when the artists who did the album covers got acknowledged.

Not bitter now and was only faintly so then- Greg was a legendary dick and I choose to put up with it.

For those of you who are or were All fans, Bill and the girlfriend this was about got back together just after it was recorded. No, I don't know if they are stil together.

OK. Monday morning and a busy one at that.

Had a nice time showing friends from Thailand around over the weekend and also went to two nice housewarmings- but now for me to be off to work.

Party on, LJ.

My big brother had some major influences on me.

See, he is eight years older than I. Being the little brother, I wanted to do things with him and be like him- including following his footsteps in choosing the tuba as my instrument in band- even though I was the smallest kid in school!

Now, it is very much in the nature of the inquisitive, obnoxious, overly verbal 12 year old little brother to want to visit and hang out with his 20 year old cool big brother at said Big Brother's dorm room half an hour by train from home. It was- I later realised- very atypical that he let me visit him at the dorms and hang out with his friends.

If I never said it before- Thanks, Dude!

Happy early birthday, too!

As a result of his influence I became much of who I am today. He got me into science fiction, weird foods, gaming, hiking, computers (getting me access to the mainframes at his Uni when I was 12!) and bluegrass music.

The performer who I have seen more than any others- and I saw the Grateful Dead at least a dozen times- is David Bromberg- whom I learned about from my Bro- for he took me to see Bromberg the first time when I was, oh, call it 13. (He also let me tag along to Atlantic City with his buddies and let me use his ID to get into the casinos when I was 14- before driver's licences had pictures!) Together we have seen David Bromberg solo, the David Bromberg Big Band and the The David Bromberg Quintet and I have also managed to see The David Bromberg Angel Band, The David Bromberg Little Big Band, The David Bromberg Quartet and about five other different variations.

I don't like much of the Bromberg I have found online, but this 20 years ago incarnation of an electric Bromberg brings across his stage presence well enough:



Ah- here he is soloing on six-string with slide:



Good times.

Happy 64th, Mickey!

A whole bunch of you need to see the story on translucent concrete. {Thanks to jaylake}

I think this is beautiful.

Someone asked to put their running video camera on a sushi conveyor at a restaurant in Japan. We get a glimpse of people dining, also realising that they are being recorded.




As for me... well, I will write soon.

Busy is good, right?

Sometimes things are funny even if one doesn't get all the jokes.

Read all the comments if you go through that link.

All of them.

It is Monday morning and I am too busy right now to post about today's New Zealand internet blackout.

Basically, our parliament has passed an edict of guilt by accusation, which sucketh.

Read about it here, to start with:

http://it.gen.nz/2009/02/22/why-have-we-got-this-terrible-copyright-law/

OK, off to tilt at windmills...

Elton John, Madison Square Garden, 1976: Funeral for a Friend/ Love Lies Bleeding:

Damaged and slightly edited, but masterful.

Unrelated other than starting with a lengthy piano intro & being from- at a guess- 1977, Jethro Tull performing Locomotive Breath:


I might post something about me someday.

I might not.

Sometimes, things utterly boggle me:

Pro-Life Group up in Arms over Krispy Kreme's Abortion Doughnuts

OK- just to confirm- that link does read: "Pro-Life Group up in Arms over Krispy Kreme's Abortion Doughnuts". I copied it from a headline and pasted it here.

I don't make this shite up.

A film about Morris Dancing.

A film about Morris dancing that has Derek Jacobi and Naomie Harris and Sophie Thompson.

Quote from the article: "...the part of Jean-Baptiste (a whelk fisherman who is shipwrecked on the Dorset coast and dances 'trance' Morris after drinking hallucinogenic cider)..."

I do so hope this comes to Wellington.

Details on the PraMotor:

The best calendar I have ever seen.




In fact, let me know if any of you place an order- I might want to get in on it.

Roight. Back in Wellington. Many thanks to all who made this (busy) trip great- especially to the Wellington support team of tatjna and rivet for holding the fort and keeping the gardens alive!

As we now have too much to do here, I wanted to drop a quick bunch of links for my future review and your edification, should you desire edifying:

Having been to Japan a bunch of times and being interested in the (radically) underreported crime news from there, I am interested to read of the coming Yakuza turf war in Tokyo.

In quite relevant news for us insomniacs, there is a definite link between insomnia and paranoiac behaviour. They also point out a highly efficacious way of dealing with insomnia.

An article on a guy who billed his phone company just over $5,481 for wasting his time and got paid by them amused me because in a similar situation back in 2002, Nextel paid me almost precisely that much to switch to any other carrier.

The power of positive threatening.
Waterford Wedgwood china has filed for bankruptcy which- as this New York Times op-ed piece points out- is a great disservice to the memory of founder Josiah Wedgwood, for he was one of the greatest intellectual salespeople in history & would have- mark my words- averted this failure.

Wedgwood is my second favourite marketer. Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the franchise is still my number one.

Real US unemployment is at least 16.5%. This article annoys me somewhat for- though they correctly point out that "Under President Lyndon Johnson, the government decided individuals who had stopped looking for work for more than a year were no longer part of the labor force..." they fail to mention that in 1986 Reagan cut that to six months.

That is right folks- if one has been unemployed for more than six months in the US, one is dropped from the labour roles as "unemployable".

Also, if you are in London- or even if you aren't- my favourite funny, quirky hugely talented singer songwriter Jill Sobule is playing the thirteenth at the Cobden Club and the fourteenth at The Regal Room. I guarantee an fun and interesting performer, please help create a fun and interesting audience for her.

One from failblog.

I usually don't post fails here, but this was so lovely to watch. Like a falling run of dominoes.

Ah yes- Fernwood-2-Night.

59 years ago today, Tom waits was born in the back of a Yellow cab.

Or was he?

Or, more importantly- who the hell cares?

I think in 2009 every Monday will be Tom Waits day.\

Somewhere.

The. Best. Online. Game. I. Have. EVER. Seen.

Seriously- Wow. Hits my dada buttons.

Have a celebratory picture of Duchamp:

For those of youse who:

1) Like wines,
2) Are in Wellington, and
3) Don't have dedicated day jobs

Turner's in Seaview is auctioning many lots of wine at their general goods auction tomorrow!

Specific brands and vintages here.

If you go, please grab some Port for me.

Thanks.

The image below is not computer generated:





Really. That is a real wire frame representation of a Lamborghini made of- dare I say it- real wire!

Made by hand. By one guy. Who if he wasn't single before, likely is now.

For all the details, go here.

Neato, the things artists get up to.

Tim OReilly on why he likes Twitter.

Kentucky Law: "Homeland Security's religious duties now come before all else, including its distribution of millions of dollars in federal grants and its analysis of possible threats."

1) Note to Kentucky: The "terrorists" are strident monotheists. Thus, this law strongly supports "the terrorists" aims and objectives.

2) Why the heck does landlocked Kentucky get $28 million a year for it's part in protecting the US? Heck- "Kentucky's" biggest "metro-area" is Cincinnati, Ohio.

OK, distraction over. Have some Yello: