jrtom

I'm listening to "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel right now. Those people who saw the 1980s movie "Say Anything" may recall the scene in which John Cusack's character is standing outside his girlfriend's window, holding a boom box above his head which is playing this song.

It just occurred to me how incomprehensible this scene is going to be to my children, technologically speaking. I mean, the _tape_ in the boom box is about the size of the larger iPods today, and it holds about a thousandth as much music (of much lower fidelity). As for the speakers, while I don't know if there is current R&D on making good speakers the size of quarters (turning the scene into one in which the character is holding his apparently empty hands up outside his girlfriend's window), I can easily imagine that playing music for one's friends will be done by wireless broadcast to personal headphones, i.e., a mobile version of what iTunes/Airport does now.

*ponder*

(Just to clarify: all I mean by "B-list" is how financially successful someone is, _not_ how talented they are.)

Some interesting reflections on what it's like to be a B-list musician, especially as it has been influenced by ubiquitous social software.

My personal guess, as with many of these artists, is that Jonathan Coulton is successful at least in part for an entrepreneurial-style reason: he was (AFAIK) among the first to adopt his somewhat unusual business model. It's hard to know just how many people it would work for. (By way of analogy, I suspect that the reason why daytime running lights reduce accidents is that, because they're unusual, they draw attention to the car--not because the light is especially helpful. If everyone had them, I'm not sure we'd see the effect anymore. Lights that (by default) were activated by reduced light levels would be another story...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/magazine/13audience-t.html?ex=1336708800&en=1d5b4728dc04dc8d&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

and totally fail to recognize genius when it's somewhere that we don't expect to find it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?hpid=topnews

Wow.

(from lethran, I think)

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/04/02itunes.html

About freakin' time.

Personally I think that the price is too high for individual tracks, but I will almost certainly upgrade all my existing iTunes tracks to the new format just so that I no longer have to do the DRM dance when I shift machines, etc. And the added quality is definitely a bonus.

Jonathon Coulton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltjbnyvq_SI&mode=related&search=

Gilbert and Sullivan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkJdEFf_Qg4

(plus other stuff on YouTube versions but they're largely just lip-synching or other video done over the original song)

Yes vs. Sir-Mix-A-Lot's "Owner Of A Lovely Butt": http://accordionguy.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/3/31/498275.html

and, of course, the Latin transliteration (yes, I know I've posted it before, but I love it so very, very much): http://quislibet.livejournal.com/164084.html

Because.

It's all ewin's fault. She started me on this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

and it was all downhill from there.

That first one is Indiana University's a capella group "Straight, No Chaser" performing a really well-done parody medley on "The 12 Days of Christmas". (And not one I'd heard before, either, which is the impressive part.) This sort of thing takes a lot of talent to do well, and they've got it.

From there I went to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKx_BTj_-IE&mode=related&search=

which is their rendition of "This is How We Do It". Not a song I'd been familiar with, but again, a well-done performance.

I followed "related to" links once or twice to get to the Pet Shop Boys singing "Where The Street Has No Name". Which is surprisingly good if you like dance mix reimaginations of songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePr53UtUkYo&mode=related&search=

And from here to them doing "Somewhere":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS28680R6SM&mode=related&search=

By now you're probably bored, so I'll finish off with the ADD Shopping Network:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA9KFAXizs4

Make sure you watch both the ticker and the 'ads' flashing to the left.

...but don't expect me to answer. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaleEmXgEvc

I'd never seen the video to this song before. I am amused.

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performs Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" [Google Video]. The vocalist isn't great, but it's otherwise quite interesting as a performance.

Jake Shimabukuro plays George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" [Google Video]. V. impressive.

ps238principal posted links to some They Might Be Giants videos here; my personal favorites are "Birdhouse In Your Soul" and "Particle Man". (Although personally I visualized Universe Man as being more kindly than that.)

You've probably seen the video of Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" featuring Christopher Walken dancing (looking a lot like Brent Spiner in this, actually). If not, you should.

But have you seen the stick figure version?

Update: fixed the (nonexistent) link to the original video, above.