Happy Father's Day

Okay, let's talk loot: a cool electric chainsaw ("Groovy!"), an awesome collection of all the Spy vs. Spy cartoons (I didn't know this but Antonio Prohias was from Cuba but left when editorial cartoons he did of Castro led to public rallies calling for his execution), the Michael Leviton CD (probably the awesomest CD for summertime), and a pair of Crocs (Professional) which have to just about be the most perfect pair of shoes ever invented (though probably not great in snow, seeing as how they've got holes in them). Oh, and a Nintendo DS Lite (the brightness! It burns! The sunglasses do nothing!).

All in all, it is a fitting tribute. We are well pleased.

If Robert Palmer were a 17-year-old kid (and not, you know, dead).

20-minute documentary about the world's most famous drum break. It starts to get interesting about four minutes in (trust me), but remains hilarious throughout because of the narrators pronunciation of "Ah-men".

When I sometimes think I'm a really big geek...

...there's always someone to remind me I'm not. How does using bots in Quake III to make "music" sound? Hear for yourself.

RIP Billy Preston.

Sometimes you have to ask yourself "just what are they doing down there at the South Pole"? I guess we're closer to proving string theory than we might have thought.

I guess no one's job is irreplaceable by a computer nowadays.

And (off-topic) what's with NyQuil's new formula? Pseudafed-free?!? What's the point of sleeping through the night if I can't breathe through my nose? Bastards.

Oh, and somehow I missed it: this past May 3rd was my five-year 'Bloggiversary!

That episode of "House" was the weirdest thing ever.

SOUL PATROL!

Charles Martinet: the voice of Mario, to be sure, but I wasn't aware how much other work he's done.

Everything you wanted to know and more (much more) about "Paul's Boutique".

I guess if you're a Super Smash Bros. fan you already know the big secret, but if you're familiar with the games and haven't heard, there's a new version coming out next year for the Wii.

Watch the trailer. Make sure you stick around after what you think is the ending for one of the biggest chuckles in gaming history.

The Time For Bed Truck.

Because Summer is just around the corner: MP3s of Ice Cream Truck music.

Another Great Idea

So it's always a little creepy when you find out someone who blogs has died and you go to their 'blog and their last post is about what movie they saw last or something having to do with economics and then there are tons of comments from people saying how sad they are or how sudden this is or how much the 'blogger was loved.

So my idea is for a simple bot which would track your blog for new posts and if their hadn't been any posts in a while (you could set the period: if you blog every day, you may want to set the period to a few days. If you're less dedicated, perhaps a week or two) and if the bot (in this case acting like a dead man's switch) detects no posts in that period, it'll post to your blog a "final blog post" that you've written before hand. You know, the usual "Well, dear friends, if you are reading this is means that I'm dead or have gone on hiatus." and so on.

I think this would give your readers a sense of closure and could really catch on.

Chacarron.

Can this be for real? I guess if it's inspired its own YTMND it has to be real.

That's still really weird, though.

NowStartABeard.com

Cool idea and well done. Link via POF.

What's funny is when this site (a German software company making music software) wants to link to this guy in their "artists" section and accidentally links to this guy instead.

So you've made your brainwashing video and now all you need is a soundtrack...

Sloppy Seconds

Darn cool idea. I'll probably submit some of my own.

Who will win in a world of... LASER CATS!

I do kind of agree that Andy Samberg is saving SNL. I have to give props to Fred Armisen and Will Forte (when he's allowed to do his own thing, that is), though. The other two featured player guys, Jason Sudeikis and Bill Hader are pretty good, too.

Vote!

Okay, so like I finished my song for the Pieces of Flair 2006 Robot Song Off and here it is.

I think this track would fall into the realm of self-parody if I hadn't spent so much time on it. If this tune were on the WB it would get a TV-14 DSV rating, so protect your kids from it.

Anyway, I could go into all the production elements of this song (vocals written and sung while I had a sinus infection, which might explain a lot, everything thrown at this track, production-wise, including a Nintendo DS playing Electroplankton, though only for a brief vocal effect) but that might legitimize it too much.

Aural Times: We sing the news so you don't have to.

Great idea. I may blatantly steal it.

Credits to RAC.

More proof that the Koreans make the coolest stuff.

TVIX Multimedia Jukeboxes

Cowon iAudio A2 PMP

Now if I were only working in Korea and not in The United Outsourcers of America, I could probably afford one of those gadgets.

Another CD for me to check out.

I guess this is CNET's idea of an April Fool's joke. I just think it's a sweet car.

Offbeat music from TMBG's opener this tour: Michael Leviton.

Summer truly is the worst.

Hey, Victor! I want to see a video of a Japanese Schoolgirl doing the Robot!

Sure thing!

Say, that looks video looks like it was a part of a more developed music video...

Right you are!

The same band teaches us the important lesson: the only thing weirder than singing Japanese food is a singing Japanese finger.

Going on my wish list: On the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore

I AM VINDICATED!!!

The Toronto Star: Ford's Crown jewel is a bulletproof boat

Someone finally gets it!!! And they're Canadian. Weeeeird.

Did Michael Jackson write the music for Sonic 3?

Conspiracy theories abound.

Somehow this whole social phenomenon had eluded me until Kevin emailed me this story about "Snakes on a Plane". Funny that they went back and reshot scenes, adding a line from a parody/fan trailer.

I was finally lucky enough to be able to pick up Electroplankton for the Nintendo DS, and I've been having a lot of fun with it. It's definitely the most soothing experience I've had with an interactive game/music toy/thingie.

Just because I can, I'm going to be using it in some limited capacity at least on my new song.

The original Music Animation Machine.

The sincerest form of flattery?

Another genius project: Repercussion.

Make your own dancing robots. Just found this guy's site but he's a genius.

Distressingly Spot-on

Which Star Trek Character Are You?

Scotty. You are a miracle workers in the eyes of other people and you are always able to perform them too, but your repair times just get longer and longer as you grow older.
Take this quiz!


Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Apparently only 1% of the people to take the quiz got Scotty. I feel special.

Boing Boing: Earth-children's robot resistance marches on.

Too cute!

Link via RAC.

I think David Shore should at least acknowledge where he got the idea for all of those computer-animated sequences where they go inside the patients heart and show the valves rupturing or whatever and every once in a while show Dr. House having a Jimmy Neturon-style brain blast.

Sequin Socks is my musical twin.

Only gooder. It's like putting your ear up to a mirror, but instead of reflecting light back at you it's reflecting music... only music doesn't come out of your ears, generally (unless you're a conch shell), so that simile isn't very apt. It's eerie to ponder, but I think this is what my music would sound like if I was a girl (but, again, only more good). Seriously, check it out. Now.

She's entered the 2006 Pieces of Flair Robot-Song-Off, too, so it appears that the competition will be every bit as stiff as one of Grandma's vodka tonics.

And, as a result of all this, Mr. Miro has a 'blog. Check out his illustrations.

I suppose I had this coming.

POF's Robot-Song-Off!

How big could this get? Well, zefrank has picked it up.

Already it's raising awareness for Rodney Brooks' program at MIT - and Rodney Brooks' awareness of the contest (POF has received correspondence from Mr. Brooks, himself!).

Needless to say, I'll need to bring my A-game.

If it's Monday, it means another tune posted to the podcast. It could also be a Friday, too, to have a new tune be posted, but it's not. Darn it.

Mr. Miro, songsmith extraordinaire, calls me out in the comboxes of this post at POF.

There must be some weird planetary alignment thing going on. Last night, completely by chance, I bumped into Dr. Apostrophe (nee Tugboat). Turns out we dig each other's music.

I dig Mr. Miro's music, too -- a great deal, in fact -- don't get me wrong; I just think there's more to Robots than having them eventually conquer us all someday.

Will there be, in full spirit of professional bonhomie, a 2006 Robot-Song-Off? Only time can tell.

Much interactive word fun.

Just in case you've missed it, there's a new tune up on the ol' podcast: a tune so weird, it required its own backstory.

Just an FYI, too: you don't need to subscribe to the podcast with any sort of fancy podcatcher like iTunes or Juice (though both are very good) to hear the tunes. Just head over to the The Cacophonous World of Professor Whimsey and you can download each tune individually.

Despair.com has added hilarious video podcasts to its repertoire of things so funny they're depressing (the "Addressing Employee Complaints" episode hits way too close to home).

You can't get all of the past episodes through iTunes, it looks like, but some are up on YouTube.

Because nothing says "Why should you let a baby ruin your summer fun?" like a Planned Parenthood Beachball or Teenwire Sports Safe.

Oddly enough, this was found on their Teens page, the name of the HTML file for which, if you look in your browser's location bar, is "sexuality.html". I guess the two are synonymous. Happy New Year, 2005!, indeed.

Aziz Ansari in Sh_ttiest Mixtape Boombox Blast.

Massively Multiplayer Pong. It sounds like a gimmick, but give it a minute and you'll notice all sorts of behaviors emerge: players trying to sabotage their team (or just assert their own individuality or their will?) by seeing how far in the wrong direction they can move their team's paddle, the effect of the popular vote as to where the ball will impact next on the rest of the players (even when it's not the right location), and so on. Interesting idea. Blue rules.

Link via POF.

My favorite new word is "retcon". Honestly, I learn something new every day around here.

New Music Monday!

As if the post below weren't enough to assault your ears, I've posted a new tune (as in brand new!) to the Podcast. Click on the Podcast or iTunes links at left to give 'er a listen.

Take The Lord's Goodness

The first time I heard "Sing Of the Lord's Goodness" in Church, I was gobsmacked. I searched the copyright notice at the bottom of the page to see if Dave Brubeck's name was there somewhere. It wasn't. Over time, my sense of outrage at Ernie Sands' act of blatant plagiarism grew and grew until finally something had to be done; something to educate the world at the grave injustice against an icon of American music, who for six decades has done his best to enrich our culture with his own brand of jazz composition and piano stylings, and who deserves a lot better than to have his work ripped off by the toilet-paper factory that is OCP Publications.

Yes, something had to be done to educate people to Sands' crime. And I only had 10 minutes and a slightly overexaggerated sense of righteous indignation to do it. And thus, "Take The Lord's Goodness" (.mp3) was born (and actually reading it now, this build up is a bit more than the clip actually merits, but oh well.

The story of the THX "Deep Note": the official version and the unofficial version.

Barb Nicolosi makes the case for going to see "Over the Hedge" on May 19.

Sounds good to me. Let's go!

Curious George has got to be just about the sweetest movie made in the last 30 years. You may fault it's thin story but if you ask me, it could have done with even less story and more monkey antics (though there were antics a-plenty, most of which pointed back to scenes from H.A. Rey's -- who himself got a nod -- books). Anyway, no matter who you are, it will warm the cockles of your heart and keep you entertained for an hour and twenty-two minutes. The most telling thing of all is that this winsome 2D-animated film was preceded by previews for a good half-dozen computer-animated films coming out over the next nine months from just about every motion picture studio I'd ever heard of. NONE of which looked remotely appealing.

And, yes, I've given Battlestar Gallactica a fair chance. Try as I might, though, I can't get past the humorless, predictable stories, terrible dialogue (any time you have a supposedly repected military officer saying "It's time to think outside the box, people," you've lost me), and sophomoric camera work. Plus, everything about the humans in that show just makes me want the Cylons to exterminate them all the more quicker (say, there's an idea: how about a Dalek/Cylon alliance? Ronald D. Moore, are you listening?). Maybe that's the point of the show, though.

I promised myself that the next time I registered a domain name solely because I thought it sounded cool, I'd put something, anything, up there, no matter how stupid.

Now that I've gone and done it, though, I'm still left with that horrible empty feeling.

Stay tuned this coming week: I had reason this weekend to dig up my old 4-track tape recorder and dig out some of the songs I did in college. We'll be featuring two of them on the podcast this week: songs no one has heard since 1996, not even me (well, until this weekend).

So be sure to stick around for the first in a series of Buried Folderol Weeks on The Cacophonous World of Professor Whimsey.

I expanded the Robot Love ringtone (see two posts down), so we'll see how that sounds. If you want to hear the wav file version, scratchy down-sampled and all, click here.

As for Verizon, I don't know how to load ringtones onto those phones, but apparently my music will be available via their download service at some point.

What is a Plog™?

RAC alerts me to a potential copyright infringement by Amazon of one of my intellectual properties.

From the Amazon description: "Every person's Plog is different (hence the name)...." What? Does that make any sense? "Plog" stands for an individual person's Amazon homepage? That's quite a stretch. Wheras "Plog" as a "Puppet webLOG" is obviously the only thing "Plog" could mean and Amazon has ripped me off.

As soon as I find someplace online that has generic cease and desist letters, they will hear from me. Actually, this one looks good but instead of asking for $150,000, maybe I'll ask for an XBox or Coldplay CD.

Okay.. let's see what their help-desk in India has to say about this:

Dear Amazon.com,

It has come to my attention that you have made an unauthorized use of my copyrighted work entitled “Plogging: The Future, Pt. I” (the "Work") in the preparation of a work derived therefrom. I have reserved all rights in the Work, first published in January, 2003. Your work entitled “What is a Plog? http://www.amazon.com/gp/plog/about.html/ref=cm_plog_learn/103-2400552-3399007?%5Fencoding=UTF8&newWin=1) is essentially derivative of the Work and clearly used the Work as its basis: the description of the origin of the term “Plog” on your webpage is utterly fanciful and inadequate and does not reasonably provide enough reason to dissuade one from making the connection to my original Work.

As you neither asked for nor received permission to use the Work as the basis for “What is a Plog?” nor to make or distribute copies, including electronic copies, of same, I believe you have willfully infringed my rights under 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq. and could be liable for statutory damages as high as an Xbox 360 or a Coldplay CD as set forth in Section 504(c)(2) therein.

I demand that you immediately cease the use and distribution of all infringing works derived from the Work, and all copies, including electronic copies, of same, that you deliver to me, if applicable, all unused, undistributed copies of same, or destroy such copies immediately and that you desist from this or any other infringement of my rights in the future. If I have not received an affirmative response from you by Ash Wednesday, 2006, indicating that you have fully complied with these requirements, I shall take further action against you.

Very truly yours,

Victor Lams
www.victorlams.com

Download your very own "Robot Love" Ringtone

In honor of something, I've made a short ringtone of "Robot Love" and if you have a Sprint phone, you can download it to your phone (most likely) in three easy steps.

1. Right click on this link: Robot_Love.qcp and save the file to your desktop.

2. Go to the Rumkin.com file uploader page and follow the instructions, in the File Name field, browse to and select the Robot_Love.qcp file on your desktop.

3. Finish the rest of the page and wait for the ringtone to be delivered to your phone. It's that easy. Oh, and delete the qcp file off your desktop as you probably don't need it anymore.

Anyway, standard text-messaging fees apply, yadda yadda, whee.

Tomorrow is Love Your Robot Day.

While some may question the origins of this holiday, I (along with only a handful of other people in the universe) know the origin of this special day and why it was first celebrated in 2001.

So don't just stand there, send an e-card!.

According to mp3.com, my music is like Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. and Bruce Haack's. I'll have to check both of them out sometime.

If you like Richard Dean Anderson as much as we do, and somehow managed to watch three quarters of the Super Bowl and still miss his commercial, then, this is for you.

The Escapist Magazine.

Worst Katamari Damacy player ever.

Seriously. I've never seen anyone play keep-away with the Prince's katamari before.

Brilliant.

"Brokeback to the Future"

link via POF.

Oh, in case you didn't know, my CD is available on iTunes (I hear it will also be available from Verizon Mobile's Vcast service, too, but I have to take their word on that).

One of my songs even appears on the "iMix": "Having Sex with a ROBOT".

I know I've arrived.

John Beasley is a good musician. I'm going to have to pick up some of his CDs when I get the chance.

Another new old favorite has been posted to the The Cacophonous World of Professor Whimsey podcast. Don't forget, there'll be another new tune posted Monday.

Wanna do a good deed? Vote for my podcast on PodCastAlley (click the "Vote Now" link on that page).

Honestly, I have no idea why you'd want to do this, but if you're looking for a way to kill 30 seconds, there you go.

Oh, and subscribe to the show now (use the links at the right). There'll be a BRAND NEW tune coming out tonight. I'm fairly sure it's like nothing else you've ever heard.

UPDATE: And the tune, "AisFor" is posted on the podcast (see buttons at right). Cry havoc and let slip... a new tune of... mine.

If you haven't seen it yet, rent without delay "Millions". In a word, fantastic.

My new podcast, The Cacophonous World of Professor Whimsey is now available by direct link at iTunes, so look for the little iTunes button at the right.

And go rent "Sky High" while you're at it. It's a far, far better movie than you'd think (and probably the only movie with Bruce Campbell in it where you can also hear They Might Be Giants cover Devo).

Wednesday-Evening Google-Video Dance-Off

This week it's Lego Break Dance vs. G.I. Joe Dance.

Winner: G.I. Joe Reggae (not strictly speaking a dance, but it beats both of them put together. Those G.I. Joe PSA videos crack me up -- click the "More Videos" tab).

Now go check out the latest edition ("2A") of the They Might Be Giants podcast.

The Cacophonous World of Professor Whimsey

I just started setting up my new podcast about 20 minutes ago, but the idea is that twice a week I'll post a tune I made and if you're subscribed, you'll download it and at the end of a year you'll have 104 new tunes.

You can subscribe by clicking this button (I'll add the iTunes link once I enroll my podcast there):



Or if you want to download the songs manually, just visit the The Cacophonous World of Professor Whimsey 'blog page.

Holophonic Recording

Listen to this with headphones. It gets really freaky, especially around the one minute mark. If I had another microphone, I might play around with this a bit.

I've uploaded a few of my videos to Google videos. Now you can watch a few of my videos on Google videos.

Huzzah!

So I've been poking around the new Google Video store (pros: you can download Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes from it. Cons: only the first 15 episodes so far and you can't do anything with them except watch them in Google's own player on your PC and the quality doesn't look that great) and while this video looks interesting, I'm not sure I'd buy it on the strength of it's 30-second-preview, arguably the most pointless 30-second preview ever.

Wednesday-Morning Google-Video Dance-Off

This week it's Carolina Shag vs. Soul Train.

Winner: Soul Train.

I guess I've been living in a bubble because I'm very saddened to learn just now of Lou Rawls' death. He was one of my favorite singers and will be missed. Fortunately he left a wealth of music behind and I'm sure will continue to be discovered by future generations of listeners.

"The Asteroid Gaspra (Old 951)" (2:00, 128kbps .mp3 format, 1.9MB).

"The Asteroid Gaspra" is a prime example of the more than 80,000 known unique melodies and variations thereof within the "Asteroid Songs" genre of Martian folk music -- a genre of music which itself was made extremely popular thanks to frequent airplay on a number of radio variety programs such as "A Volcanic Ash Plane Home Companion".

While the Asteroid Gaspra (aka Asteroid 951) has never actually collided with the planet Mars, it has come close enough on several occasions to earn itself a cherished place in Martian folklore.

(Lyric is embedded in the comments tag of the .mp3, so get yourself MediaMonkey or something similar that can read comment tags if you want the lyric). Written for the KVRAudio.com January, 2006, "Martian Folk" contest.

Test your almost-four-year-old EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient)

When your almost-four-year-old's Leap pad plus microphone asks him to record his own voice saying the Chinese word for "Good bye", zai jian, does your almost-four-year-old say (into the microphone):

a) "Zai jian"
b) "Good Bye"
c) "Momma, you're poopy!" and then giggle hysterically.

Now I know I'm in the wrong line of work...

Get Perpendicular!

True Confession Time

Back in the early 1990s, I was a legendary teen pop singer, not unlike Hilary Duff, who was 5 at the time. Under the stage name "Victosys" ("I'm the disease, and the rhythm is the cure!") I played all the big venues, including the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, where this particular video (in the revolutionary-at-the-time Windows Media format) was taken. My vocals were a little muffled because I'd just overblown the mic's circuits on "Uptown Girl" and the pre-programmed transition into the next song was so quick the roadies couldn't throw me a new one in time.

"Victosys rocks the Pontiac Silverdome"

In case you couldn't tell, I really love Karaoke Revolution Party with the whole "put your own head on the singer" feature. It's one of the most compelling and creepy reasons to own a PS2.

It's a two-peat!

Happy New Year!

And nothing says "Brave New 2006" like a quartet of dancing robots.

Update: Apparently the project has spawned some local Pac-Man Copycats.

The Pac-Man Project.

While I appreciate their respect for history and the more dada-esque elements of the project, I have to believe that 10 or 15 years from now, some guy is going to be sitting around bemoaning the fact that he spent his college years making an Inky costume and crashing Chem lectures.

Leave it to Joss Whedon to come up with the best sci-fi/action-adventure movie of all time... and then have nobody notice.

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

NORAD Tracks Santa, 2005

The Santa Cam and satellite imagery has been much improved this year.

GuitarJeff of Outland posts his latest tune on the kvraudio.com message boards: A NON P.C. Disco Christmas.

It's sad, but you really almost have to say "good riddance" to Tricky Dick Santorum. When he fails next November, he'll have only himself to blame: first for endorsing Specter and again for this.

Just don't tell Bill Shill that.

This observation has probably been made before, but isn't the Honorable John E. Jones, III doing exactly what people accuse the Church of doing to Galileo: banning folks from teaching science which those doing the banning consider to be inappropriately laced with metaphysics disagreeable to their worldview in an educational forum which is operated by the banners?

It's okay though, this is different: it's not the Church doing the banning this time, it's the Federal Government. Actually, I see that my analogie breaks down with the simple fact that, particularly at the time, the Church was considered an authority in both metaphysics and science wheras a Federal judge, so far as I know, is an authority in neither.

Very cool NPR interview with Tim Kehoe, the inventor of bubbles of color.

Zubbles is probably the most significant toy innovation of the last 50 years.

Follow this link to find an unforgettable rendition of "Oh, Holy Night!"

Make sure you stick around for the entire second chorus. It's a suitable payoff for what you have to endure before it. I almost have to believe, though, now that I've made it to the end of the tune this was done as a parody. If it wasn't, it's both wonderful and unpardonable.

I guess it's a matter of faith.

UPDATE (12/18): And now, the answers. Also, for the record, Katie does not listen to the Hoobastank-Eyed Peas.

Oh, and I've been tagged by Katie!

I don't know any of her music because it's all stuff that the kids are listening to these days like the Hoobastank-Eyed Peas and stuff, so rather than embarass myself, I'll just post the first fifteen first lines my mp3 player gives me (30 seems excessive to me) and that's only of the tunes that have words and that I know. If you can guess them and/or who recorded them, that's fine (only one track per artist appears below, I removed duplicate artist's entries which is the only thing that saved all of you from the first line of "I Have Been in You"); some are surprisingly easy some are not. Anyway, I'll post the "answers" in the comments section in a week.

Out of 6,277 mp3s, here's what came up first:

1. "Lonely nights, I cry myself to sleep; tell me what am I gonna do, 'cause it's always been you to dry my tears?"
   The Captain and Tennille, "Lonely Night (Angel Face)"


2. "Cigarette holder which wigs me, over her shoulder, she digs me..."
   James Darren, "Satin Doll"


3. "Cafe con pan, cafe con pan, cafe con pan, cafe con pan, cafe con pan, cafe con pan, cafe con pan, cafe con pan, cafe con pan, cafe con pan!"
   They Might Be Giants, "Mr. Xcitement"


4. "Baby please, please don't take your love from me, I am yours forever more until eternity."
   Donna Summer, "Heaven Knows"


5. "I don’t have to sell my soul, he’s already in me. I don’t need to sell my soul, he’s already in me."
   Stone Roses, "I Wanna Be Adored"


6. "I just want to feel safe in my own skin, I just want to be happy again."
   Dido, "Honestly OK"


7. "Give me, your dirty love, like you might you surrender to some dragon in your dreams."
   Frank Zappa, "Dirty Love"


8. "I would be so willing, to give you all I got, you're a special lady, forget me not."
   Earth Wind & Fire, "And Love Goes On"


9. "Bad! The girl is bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! The lady is bad! Bad! She's bad!"
   Funkadelic, "Undisco Kidd"


10. "I'd wash the sand off the shore, give you the world if it was mine, blow you right to my door, Mmm! Feels fine."
    Sade, "Paradise"


11. "Try to forget torment, lying behind a smile, tears for sentiment, now I've done my time."
    Swing Out Sister, "Surrender"


12. "I am a poet. I am very fond of bananas. I am bananas. I am very fond of a poet."
    Kurt Elling, "The Uncertainty of a Poet" (after Wendy Cope)


13. "Tongue tied or short of breath don't even try. Try a little harder. Something's wrong I'm not naive you must be strong. Ooh."
    Kajagoogoo, "Too Shy"


14. "There’s spring in the air. They’re sweeping the streets. Wind is a breeze. The sun becomes her he agrees."
    Metric, "Love is a Place"


15. "You are so unpredictable, when I am not. You are so irresistible, that I can't stop. You say my name, and I start walking on heaven."
    Stevie Wonder, "Galaxy Paradise"

More New Music!

Last month I somehow won the KVRAudio music contest and my prize was Garritan's Jazz and Big Band virtual instrument collection.

This thing is awesome.. it's got drum sounds, a piano, basses, and, of course, what I've been wanting my whole life, realistic, playable horns. So anyway, I did this tune in about an hour or so tonight, just to try it out. Enjoy.

"Sins of Omission" (mp3 format)

Ghost Monkey Cop

Cop shows and cartoons about animals who solve crimes and are in bands were big in the 1960s. Also big were shows about ghosts and witches. D-list animation studio Banarama/Hibernia thought they'd do the industry one better and create a hip show for kids about a dead monkey who plays the marimba and solves crimes. They even got Charles Mingus' brother Billy Mingus to write and perform the theme song (with out of work lounge act Robbie "The Throat" Vertulli on vocals).

The creepy plot premise proved too much for even the rather permissive sensibilities of the baby boomers in the test audience and, perhaps also due to the suspcious and untimely drug-related death of lead animator "Trippin'" Joe Bostowiz, no further episodes were produced after the pilot (of which no known copies are believed to exist).

Only a single recording of the theme song lived on. And here it is:

"Ghost Monkey Cop! (Who Also Plays the Marimba)"

They Might Be Giants has a new podcast!

Rare and new tunes. Stuff not even I'd heard before, some of it very, very funny (John Linnell's rendition of "It Was a Very Good Year"), brilliant (his "North American Turtle Songs"), and novel (the "Lounge" version of "Particle Man").

Check it out.

For those of you who happen to have access to Michigan State's public television station, tonight they are airing a program on one of my grandfather's more famous statues.

The Sparty wikipedia page is also a pretty cool entry on the statue. Anyway, we'll be watching the program because my mom and aunt might be on it!

You scored as Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones is an archaeologist/adventurer with an unquenchable love for danger and excitement. He travels the globe in search of historical relics. He loves travel, excitement, and a good archaeological discovery. He hates Nazis and snakes, perhaps to the same degree. He always brings along his trusty whip and fedora. He's tough, cool, and dedicated. He relies on both brains and brawn to get him out of trouble and into it. Indiana Jones 79% William Wallace 75% Batman, the Dark Knight 75% Neo, the "One" 71% Captain Jack Sparrow 67% Lara Croft 63% Maximus 63% The Amazing Spider-Man 54% The Terminator 50% James Bond, Agent 007 50% El Zorro 42% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

Hats off to Katie for directing us towards the test.

I winned?! Wha' happened?!