Latest on twitter:
A Portrait of Michelle’s Future Lover, by Steve Yee (via WebUrbanist)
JUST KIDDING, that’s not really the title. But seriously, isn’t this just breathtaking?
This is part of the GRAMMY campaign “Music Makes Us.” You can check out all of the photos and videos (really cool) on the GRAMMY media page (3/4 way down).
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
The Morning Benders - Mother & Child Reunion
I love this Paul Simon cover, from their free album The Bedroom Covers.
From their website (link above):
the bedroom covers:
1. crying - roy orbison
2. mother and child reunion - paul simon
3. why dont they let us fall in love? - the ronettes
4. lovefool - the cardigans
5. i won’t share you - the smiths
6. he’s a rebel - the crystals
7. marie - randy newman
8. fools rush in - johnny mercer/rube bloom
9. temptation inside your heart - velvet underground
10. dreams - fleetwood mac
11. pull up the roots - talking heads
12. caroline, no- beach boys remix (bonus track)
12.5 why don’t they let us fall in love? (live daytrotter version!)…these songs sound the way they do, because we recorded them with a laptop and one mic. we used mainly acoustic guitars and shakers because that’s what we had lying around, and we couldn’t make much noise in our apartment anyway. we didn’t spend time arranging any of these either. we learned the chords and the lyrics (which was pretty easy because we’ve heard all these songs hundreds of times), and we played ‘em. what you hear at the basis of the recording is generally a first take. sometimes we added some background vocals or another guitar part here or there, because the songs we were covering had a lot more going on than us, and we were feeling a bit inadequate…
but hey, you’re always fighting a losing battle when you’re recording covers, because 99.99% of the time the cover isn’t going to be as good the original. well, for the record, let it be known that none of our covers are as good as the originals. that’s part of why we wanted to give all these tracks away for free. if you haven’t heard one of these songs before, you should go out and buy it from the original artist, RIGHT NOW. disclaimer aside: if you want to hear some kids having a lot of fun playing some of their favorite songs ever, check these out.
love,
the morning benders
(via thecoloursinmymind)
Milk, Coke, Beer, NaCl(aq)
CARSICK CARS “MOGU MOGU” VIDEO (via kanYe West Blog)
siiique. This makes me want to paint on pictures. Haven’t done that in a while.
Swine flu: music to my ears
“Each beat corresponds to one amino acid, and the piece is in 3/4 time, so each six measures would correspond to five turns around the alpha structure. (I’m weaseling because I haven’t the foggiest idea how the protein actually gets folded.) Amino acids with side chains that are neither aromatic not aliphatic control the piano and organ: the nine non-hydrophobics the piano, and the four hydrophobics the organ. The three amino acids with aliphatic side chains control the low synthesizer, while the four with aromatics control the percussion.” (Stephan Zielinski)“Swine Flu Hemagglutinin”: amino acid sequence as ambient music.
![thedailywhat:
Photo of the Day: Spectacular long-exposure shot of a Roomba doing its thing.
[via.]](http://2.media.tumblr.com/b9vfl4b63n8ukph4kghKoHCSo1_500.jpg)
Photo of the Day: Spectacular long-exposure shot of a Roomba doing its thing.
[via.]
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Ventriloquist - “Party Pt. One”
These guys really impressed me when I saw them play with Tetsuo in York, PA a month or so ago. They’re fun to watch and their songs are totally unpredictable—surprise tempo and time signature changes, standard two-step beats, and “oh shit” breakdowns, with fun, quirky diddies sprinkled throughout.
[update: What the freakin’ heck do ya know?? They’re playing TWO blocks from my house tomorrow. Well shoot.]
(Not to be confused with this awesome spoken word project Ventriloquist.)
When I get paid, my first purchase will be AmieStreet.com credit with which I will buy Whistle Peak’s self-titled album. Four Kentucky boys playing banjos and tambourines: I’ll take it.
Right now, it’s $1.65. What a deal!
(Photo by John Rott)
Orc-: Monster-Killer-Testicle
-
orc
- “ogre, devouring monster,” O.E. orcþyrs, orcneas (pl.), perhaps from a Romanic source akin to ogre, and ult. from L. Orcus “Hell,” a word of unknown origin. Revived by J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) as the name of a brutal race in Middle Earth.
-
orca
- “killer whale,” 1846, introduced as a generic term for the species by J. Richardson & J.E. Gray in “The zoology of the voyage of HHS ‘Erebus’ & ‘Terror,’ ” from L. orca “cetacean, a kind of whale.” Earlier in Eng., orc, ork “large whale” (c.1590), from Fr. orque, had been used vaguely of sea monsters (see orc).
-
orchid
- 1845, introduced by John Lindley in “School Botanty,” from Mod.L. Orchideæ (Linnaeus), the plant’s family name, from L. orchis, a kind of orchid, from Gk. orkhis (gen. orkheos) “orchid,” lit. “testicle,” from PIE *orghi-, the standard root for “testicle” (cf. Avestan erezi “testicles,” Arm. orjik, M.Ir. uirgge, Ir. uirge “testicle,” Lith. erzilas “stallion”). The plant so called because of the shape of its root. Earlier in Eng. in L. form, orchis (1562). Marred by extraneous -d- in attempt to extract the Latin stem.
Etymonline
“This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they’re explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago.” I’m geeking out so hard right now. I love this stuff! I look up about 4-8 common words a day to read their definitions, variations, origins, etc. Stay tuned for fav excerpts.
I started listening to Metric’s new album Fantasies tonight. I’m five tracks in, and there isn’t a bad song yet. Same ol’ sweet, saucy, bop-your-head-and-twist-your-shoulders sound, with the usual side of spite and a lessons learned you’ve come to expect from Emily Haines in Metric. Sure, I’m only half-way in, but it’s already worth the $5 you can snag it for through Amazon’s 50 for $5 deal.
This video is an slower, accoustic version of “Twilight Galaxy.”
Did they tell you, you should grow up
When you wanted to dream.
Did they warn you, better shape up
If you want to succeed
I don’t know about you, who are they talking to?
They aren’t talking to me.
Music is not like water but it's sure starting to remind me of a flying car
This is the the best essay I’ve read on the “future of music” in a long time. I really like this paragraph: “As for the idea that musicians suddenly have to come up with other things to sell besides music, well, we are yet again zooming around in flying-car airspace. Musicians make music, and the best ones earn their living from that very music. Music fans like listening to music and don’t necessarily want or need a lot of extra stuff that isn’t music from the musicians they enjoy. To believe in some…scheme by which musicians learn to not be musicians in order to be musicians, to believe that the music industry will subsist on marketing gimmickry alone, is as absurd as believing that car companies could build reliable flying machines and that average citizens could pilot and maintain them.”
Bookmark toolbar, after! Userstyles.org let me download some coolness to get my favicons back. Woohoo!
Need more bookmarks. Here I go!
My bookmark toolbar, before. I miss my favicons from Firefox 2. They were so pretty and space-saving, even if I couldn’t remember where they all led.
Underoath has a new video for their single “Too Bright To See Too Loud To Hear” off their Sept 08 release Lost In The Sound Of Separation. The video is killer; just wish the climax wasn’t :40 from the end of the song.
I’m digging their website these days too.
