awesome music video: OK-GO

This is the best music video I've seen in AGES. (Also, don't miss this earlier example of their dancing prowess.) I like both of the songs, too- I picked up the album these came from, called "Oh No," and it's pretty much great throughout.

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Timmy and the Accordion Player

Because we all love the Residents!

The source material for this one is awesome, too -- it's available on one of the AV Geeks "Educational Archive" DVDs (well worth getting).

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Bear Cam!

I guess this might have been on MeFi, but I missed it, but then Steve sent it to me -- and it's pretty rad.

It's BEARS! In Alaska! It's particularly neat since someone's there controlling the camera (remotely, from Homer), so you get some pretty good shots. And, well, hey, who doesn't like bears, huh?

(Also, Steve told me that he actually met Timothy Treadwell -- kinda; he came to the station where Steve was working for an interview, and Steve probably said like two words to the guy -- he didn't even listen to the interview, but apparently everyone else at the station said he was completely batty. Which, um, isn't too far of an imaginative leap if you've seen Grizzly Man.)

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Coil - Tainted Love Music Video

I posted this in my own LJ a few days ago, because it is an amazing video, but it's sorta seeped into my brain and I know (or am at least pretty sure) Lee's a Coil fan, so I was thinkin' perhaps a place to start might be interesting. I love what they do with the eerie-creepy buzzer.

(The funny thing is, when I went to Everyday Music yesterday, I checked for Coil stuff, and they had a traycard, but no discs. The tray card said, roughly "also see Throbbing Gristle, Nurse With Wound, Foetus". My girlfriend read this aloud in a way of sorta mocking the HARDCORE!!!111-ness of the band names, and I don't think she was expecting me to talk about how, say, I kinda like Foetus, but find a lot of their-or-rather-his stuff tends to sound the same. I'm more into Industrial-ish stuff than she is, though, and this shouldn't be read as a mocking of tastes or anything, because she's gotten me into a bunch of cool stuff, like, say, Nilsson, New Order and the Posies.)

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Colbert Finds Signs of Rapture in Mideast Crisis

Speaks for itself, I think. Get yer t-shirt before it's REALLY too late!

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For those of you with iTunes installed...

This album is HILARIOUS.

Don't actually buy it, of course, but just listen to the samples. They're awesome and terrible. It's "The Very Best of: Pet Shop Boys" by Various Artists. And it's basically Karaoke backing tracks of PSB songs as sung by a guy who doesn't really seem to know english very well doing his best Neil Tennant. Which, well, really isn't very good.

I recommend "West End Girls" and "What Have I Done To Deserve This".

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pincushion macro

P7222929-01
Originally uploaded by selfnoise.

I don't know why, but this photo just fascinates me. The needles and pins look like big iron spikes.

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Brawny Academy

Girls, do your boys need some relationship schoolin'? Send 'em to Brawny Academy, where they'll learn everything they'll need to learn about how to make your relationship work: Communication, consideration, team work, and cow-towing to your ever-widening ass. Ha ha, no, just kidding on that first one.

Anyway, guys, seriously, check out the episodes. And I normally hate this shit. But I can't wait for the rest. BRILLIANT viral marketing, and some meaty, worthwhile content that's funny. Worth checking out.

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Reed concedes

Ralph Reed misses Diebold payment, has electoral service cut off.

“I’m obviously disappointed,” said a tearful Sadie Fields, head of the Georgia Christian Coalition. “The state lost an opportunity. But he will be back. He has far too much to offer.”

Gosh, I sure hope not, Sadie. I like watching you cry.

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Gnarls Barkley - Smiley Faces

This is AWESOME. Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, Gnarls Barkley, and a really great song. Check it out.

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Doggy IQ Test

Go ahead, give your dog an IQ test. You want him to get into the best obedience schools, right?

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The Big Snit (and other stories)

The National Film Board of Canada has put fifty animated shorts online... what a bonanza this is.

Not only does it include one of my favorite shorts ever, The Big Snit, it has shorts I'd heard of but had never seen, like The Cat Came Back.

Monty, prepare to re-live bits of your childhood, I suspect. :)

I do wish they'd included Pigbird, though.

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David Cunningham's New Project

WFMU just did a post about David Cunningham (the guy behind The Flying Lizards!) and his new project... A Piano In A Gallery. No, he's not actually PLAYING the piano -- the visitors are. It's a sort of similar thing to both Brian Eno's gallery work with ambient tape loops on different time cycles, creating an ever-shifting collage of sound and David Byrne's recent Playing The Building. The room is mic'd, and the sound is run through a piano, and amplified, both bringing background noises to the foreground AND creating feedback-style loops, as those sounds are also run into the mics and so forth. So... if you happen to be in London....

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Billy's Balloon

I can't believe it took me this long to think of looking for this animated short (NSFKind-hearted souls) on YouTube... I have a framed postcard depicting a shot from this film hanging over my desk.

I still find myself completely cracked up by the end of it. :D The subtle expressions, the ridiculous escalation of violence... it's priceless.

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The Ballad Of C.T.

I've got some sad news -- one of my cats, C.T., died today. He'd been having seizures for the past year or two; they'd been increasing, and the past week, they'd been near constant; on Monday, he'd had four or five, same with Tuesday, when he had one at the top of the basement stairs and fell down (when Dad ran to see him, he wasn't moving, and Dad thought he'd killed himself; he was just stunned, though), and yesterday, he'd had the same amount, and fallen off the bed. Previously, during bad spells, he'd have about one every other day, for a few days, maybe a week, and then he'd be good for a while. He also hadn't been eating for the past two days.

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We've had C.T. for a long time -- about 12 years. Mom figured out that he was about 18-20 when he died, since he spent 12 years with us, about 2 or 3 years as a stray, and about 5 or 6 in the house at the opposite corner of this block, who had gotten him as a kitten.

This part of the story is very sad; the people who originally got him were terrible people. Some of the worst kind of people. The reason we called him C.T. comes from his days as a neighborhood cat -- he was "That Crooked Tailed Cat"; his owners thought it was great fun to slam his tail in the door, and as such it was broken in 3 places. They'd also beat him and find new and innovative ways to abuse him. When they moved, they just abandoned him.

C.T. was one of the strongest cats I'd ever known - he was incredibly muscular. At first, C.T. was the really strong, mean cat who would beat up our cats -- but as we got to know him, we knew how gentle he truly was. Mom spent a lot of time getting C.T. to trust her, and, well, any people. After all, all the people he'd known had thought it was funny to break his bones. One of her favorite stories was when she was talking with my grandfather about how she felt she was really making strides in getting close to C.T. -- she'd said she'd been able to pet him. She offered to show Grandpa, and they went outside, and Mom had a can of cat food for him, and reached down to pet him... and he got scared and clawed her a good one; Grandpa howled in laughter.

Of course, it was shortly after this that C.T. got enough trust to move in with us. For a long time, my parents were the only ones he trusted. He kind of trusted me, but it was warily. I think his main problem with me was that I brought other people home who were loud and he wasn't sure what to make of that -- of course, we had no intention of EVER doing ANYTHING to harm him, but at the time he didn't know that. Whenever anyone came over, he'd run and hide.

Finally, he got used to other people, and in his last 5 years or so, he was actually a bit of a social butterfly; he still had moments where he'd get really anxious, and might run away kind of skittishly and worry that Something Bad would happen (that, of course, never came), but for the most part, he had finally grown used to and comfortable around people. That was a big step forward for him, and a lot of people realized that (particularly since they'd inevitably ask about his tail, and so they'd get the whole story) and really encouraged him. I know that C.T. felt loved, because he was. And that's one thing that I'm very glad for in his life.

He was also one of the smartest cats I've ever known -- he really understood a lot; he knew, almost innately, that I've got hypersensitivity to pain, and I always have -- and he would ALWAYS be very, very gentle with me, never scratching, and when he play-bit, it was always very light. With Dad, he knew that not only did he have the proper number of nerve cells, but also that his skin was rougher and calloused, so he could be rougher without worrying about hurting him (though, occasionally, C.T. would, accidentally, be too rough with Dad, but then immediately would act ashamed and sorry).

When he was happy, he would wag his tail -- it wouldn't be a standard cat's tail waving, mainly because he couldn't, but instead, his tail would vibrate rapidly back and forth over a small span; I think this was due to his abuse (which also resulted in his back and legs being sore and painful as well), but it was pretty cute anyway.

He was also overly conscious of making a faux pas; he'd always defer to our other cats since they'd been there first, and he was just grateful for a home. They'd occasionally pick fights with C.T., and he'd just take it... even though he could have cleaned their clocks handily. Sometimes we'd even tell him he could without fear of reprisal from us, but he'd never take us up on it, though he'd occasionally get into friendly-antagonism matches with Henry; speaking of which, Henry's been wandering around all day looking for C.T., wondering where he is, and wondering why they haven't gotten to antagonize each other today.

Strangely, as my parents started watching Rodeos again on TV, C.T. really enjoyed watching them as well, and playing as if he was a Bull as well. This morning, when he refused to eat the Turkey we'd given him (Turkey was his favorite food, but also, sadly, a food he was allergic to), to make up for it, they showed him some of the Bulls on the official Rodeo Website, and that really perked him up; so, I suppose if he didn't get or want an actual last meal, he got something similar. C.T. also loved to watch the raccoons that would come on our deck that we'd feed. We joked that he had a crush on the mother raccoon who would come to our deck both with her babies and without to get away from same. He would watch her with rapt attention, and then, during the day when she wasn't out there, drink from the tub she bathed in. (I'm not sure what allure filthy raccoon water had for him, but why deny him one of life's many joys?)

It's one of those things where I am very sorry for all the abuse he had to suffer early on, and I wish we would have been able to afford the resetting of his tail and ribs and other broken bones to perhaps stop his day-to-day pain. Although there's nothing I could do to stop the abuse, or help him earlier. I'm glad that he got to know a house of true love, which we all gave him, as did everyone who came in did as well. C.T. is a wonderful cat, one of the best I've ever known. I will miss him greatly, and do now. He was one of the smartest, most loving and giving cats I've ever known.

I love you, C.T.

Goodbye.

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Mouse rides frog

This will probably expire soon, since I think Yahoo news kills out old items, but holy cow:

Fri Jun 30, 5:15 AM ET

A mouse rides on the back of a frog in floodwaters in the northern Indian city Lucknow June 30, 2006. REUTERS/Pawan Kumar (INDIA)

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A few months ago I saw a show on the Discovery Channel about how the length of the "that finger next to the cuss-word one" may indicate an incredible host of things about you. Apparently, our finger lenths are determined by the amount of testosterone a fetus is exposed to in the womb. Apparently, testosterone exposure at this stage dictates the structure of the human brain and, research is now showing, can also determine a lot about you that none of us may expect.

Finger length can indicate a lot of things. For instance, are you autistic or, like me (or like me, autistic??), an excellent, or in this case, a poor driver? Are you gay or possibly some other criminal (joking, joking, a reference to gay marriage, there)? Could road rage may be rooted in higher exposures to testosterone, perhaps? Or could it, conversely, positively affect your science career? And how long will it be before this kind of research is used as a legal defense? A good spatial thinker? Fast? A chick that could run a crane or other heavy machinery? Research says yes. If they have fingers like a man's, too, they may even (link above) be more fertile, too.

Fascinating.

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A terrible project-plugging post.

So, I've set up a couple things, and I figured I might as well mention them, so hooray!

• The Hobbled Strat: A writing-prompt-group-blog-thing based off of Eno/Schmidt's Oblique Strategies. It's pretty laid back and anyone can join. Which is good, and will hopefully happen soon, so that horrible "About Me" paragraph will go away. Boo to that.
  
• The Your Subculture Soundtrack wiki is finally, I figure, More Or Less Ready For Prime Time. I've also gone through and put in listings for basically all of the Mix CDs I've gotten, so that's kinda neat, too, I suppose! Including a couple of Lee's -- so, uh, check them out, I suppose, and make sure I didn't do anythin' dumb. And just check it out in general, I suppose. I'm pretty proud of the way it's turned out particularly so far with our small group of regulars. If we can get more, that'd be awesome. (Still not sure how to really promote it/particularly the Mix CD part of it, but whatever. If I can figure that out, that'd be wicked rad, since the Mix CD thing is something that works best the more people know about it.)
  
• My new Mix CD is online, too! Ready for download here. So, hooray for that, too!
  
• Um, I think that's about it.
  
• Yep.
  
• Man, why won't this listing stop?
  
• Was it because of something I've done?
  
• Do I need to atone for my sins?
  
• I'm sorry I ate cookies when I shouldn't have and watched that guy drown! I didn't mean to!
  
• ....nope, didn't work.
  
• Well, hell.
  
• Maybe I should just hit "Post" and that would work.
  
• Hm... oh, wait I forgot, I need to come off the keyboard to do that.
  
• That totally sounds d

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RIP Syd Barrett

Shine on you crazy diamond.

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Katrina damage in Mississippi

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Originally uploaded by contextobject.

Check out some of this guy's photos... I don't know if this is his home, or one he's about to work on, or what (I hope he's going to add some captions and info to the pics), but it's heartbreaking to see this stately old house that was obviously ripped to shreds by Katrina.

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Stevie Wonder Part II

Man, is there nothin' he CAN'T do? I love Johnny Cash's reaction too -- you can tell he's getting a real kick out of it.

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Islam vs. Christianity

What can I say... I never manage to stay up and watch "The Daily Show," so this is new to me. Hilarious. :)

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Happy 4th of July from Lake Wobegon

In honor of our country's 230th birthday, I want to share Garrison Keillor's hilarious story about an overly-ambitious 4th of July display they tried to give in Lake Wobegon one year.

(This was on last week's edition of A Prairie Home Companion.)

Just the phrase "Vesuvius curtain" cracks me up.

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Bill Bennett takes another televised beating

The Washington Post's Dana Priest took Bill Bennett to task on Meet The Press yesterday, and got in a nasty personal jab while she was at it. How on earth did Bennett get to be the administration's unofficial spokesman with that whiny, flustered style of his?

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TWO THINGS

First -- that thing up there -- the brand new Sparks Video. It's pretty awesome, and you should check it out. It's pretty well done, and it's got kitties. So you can't really go wrong with either of that. It might be marginally NSFW as the song's "Dick Around", but otherwise, it should be a-OK.

The OTHER thing:
I've been doing a weekly radio show on Steve.FM, which I think I've mentioned before. Anyway, though -- one thing I was thinking is that perhaps it would be good to have some fill-in guest hosts as well. So, if you're interested, let me know! Here are the particulars:

(the particulars moved inside by Lee- more in the complete post)

• It'd need to be delivered to me in 2-4 segments of no more than an hour long (I usually do four-roughly-half-hour segments, just because that's what Garage Band does. However, the automation system chokes on stuff longer than an hour, so... yeah.)
  
• No real restrictions on content, but use Common Sense -- feel free to play loads of stuff with swears in it (if you haven't noticed, I do....), but it might not be the best time to do a Skrewdriver Marathon.
  
• Basically you would wanna produce it all, but it's pretty easy. If you don't know how, or what type of software to use, I'd be happy to help out however I can. Right off the top of my head, Audacity is pretty good, and cross platform. I've also used Cool Edit Pro, although my favorite (though this one costs money) is probably Sonic Foundry Vegas. However, anything will basically do, though I really recommend a multi-tracking software. It makes things way, way easier. Another tip -- even if you just have a crappy computer microphone, an easy way to make it sound real good is to make a pop filter by taking an old wire hanger, bending it to make more of a diamond shape, and putting some old pantyhose over it. Speak into that, about 6 inches or so away from your mic, and it sounds a lot, lot, lot better. For reals.
  
• I can provide you with mp3s of the show intro and Bam Thwok if necessary.

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