Movie Buffed

Laura bought me a subscription to Zip.ca for my birthday/Christmas present this year. I now have access to many movies the stores in the Soo don't carry and/or I can't find online. Things like Sunset Bvld. (1950), Zardoz (1974) and The Rules of the Game (La regle du jeu) (1939). Right now there are 89 films on my ZipList.

Part of the fun is watching the street scenes of the films and seeing what life looked like back then. In that vein here is a youtube video of a street in San Fransisco in 1905. It reminded me of my days back in India where traffic is much less ordered and much more chaotic. Watch how many cars and horse & buggies cut across the track right in front of the train. I found it fascinating and fun. I counted three people who almost got run over in 7 minutes.



And here is London in 1927...in colour!:




p.s. Porter and Woody Sims are playing Searchmont this weekend. Sets start at 4pm-ish and 9pm-ish

Did you see this yet?




Pretty cool.

What are you listening to?

A question I pose and am posed often. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of podcasts but I already did a podcast blog post way back in the old "skinny" blog days but here's a quick run down anyway.

I'm listening to Keith and the Girl, Radiolab (two excellent podcasts Tim turned me onto), This American Life, Quirks & Quarks, Old Time Radio Network (old radio shows but only the ones about Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe), The Moth (true stories told onstage with no notes), Furled Sails (sailing podcast), Alan Watts (excerpts from his recorded lectures), The Bugle (British Humour from The Daily Show's John Oliver), The Preparedness Podcast and a few others.

As for music, I've been listening to YouTube a lot lately.

The first two are from a young Australian who calls himself Pogo. He takes sounds from Disney flicks and turns them into songs:





Here is a mind blowing pair from "Kutiman". He takes clips from YouTube and makes music from them. If you click on the video it will take you to the YouTube page with the same song on it. If you click on the right "more info" tab you can see the source of the sounds in his songs. Just amazing!





As for non-YouTube-remix artists, I've been hooked on Fleet Foxes a lot lately. Beautiful stuff.



If you're interested here is the background of this piece of video:



Here's Wilco doing Impossible Germany. I'm mostly paying attention to Nels Cline. He's the madman with the beat up Jazzmaster. Great solo in this tune. Starts at about the 3 minute mark



And finally, some light-hearted fun. Here's Vince with Slap Chop remixed. An ear worm for sure.




Oh and I'm always listening to the Books. "Smells Like Content", my favourite song from their last album, "Lost and Safe"



So what are you listening to?

Video of the Galactic Center of the Milky Way
(48 seconds long)

How to make a Vacuum Tube

Check out this video. It's 17 minutes long but pretty interesting.

Fabrication d'une lampe triode
Uploaded by F2FO

Bad Astronomy Blog Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2007

Some neat shots here.


And this from NASA's STEREO ( Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) - 3D pics of the sun with the moon moving across it.




p.s. Here's 50 Things We Know Now (That We Didn't Know Last Year)
and the 2006 Edition.

I used #2 a lot on my students last year.

The part of the brain that regulates reasoning, impulse control and judgment is still under construction during puberty and doesn't shift into autopilot until about age 25.

This is very cool. Go here and watch it.

Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?

Humourous:

I have a new God and His name is John Kilduff.

John wears surgical gloves and a paint splattered suit while painting, running on a treadmill and fielding calls from Los Angeles gang bangers who hate his guts. He usually adds another dimension to his show - playing chess, eating pie, frying pickles, building a sushi gingerbread house, all while being plagued by technical difficulties. He mixes his metaphors, rambles on and sweats buckets. And throughout it all his unbridled enthusiasm and positive attitude shine through.

I have just completed watching all his posted videos at YouTube and my stomach is sore from laughing so hard. I featured him below in my "what-am-I-watching-on-YouTube -posting" with a clip from his show "Let's Paint, Exercising and Blend Drinks".

To attend weekly mass just go to:
1)http://www.letspainttv.com for his website
2)http://www.myspace.com/letspainttv for his myspace
3)http://www.cafepress.com/letspainttv to purchase stuff from his Cafe Press store
4.http://letspainttv.blogspot.com/ for his blog
and
5)http://stores.ebay.com/John-Kilduff-Fine-Art to purchase his paintings

The Gospel according to John Kilduff:

"We live in a multi... multi-faceted kinda operation here in this lifestyle that we live in today and I'm trying to just show it to you. How we can still persevere with all the factors of these things coming down. It's okay!"

The mass is ended, go in peace.

By Request

I've been asked to share some videos I've been watching on YouTube. Are you sure?

Here we go:

We'll start off with a classic - Nintendo 64 kid.
The original:



The remix:



Here are the 7 Most Insane Moments from Cable Access TV. I recommend 2,3,4 and 6. Holy Crap! (Number 1,5 and 7 suck.)

http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=1649

An excerpt: Number 2 - A tv show called "Let's Paint, Exercise and Mix Drinks". How insane is this show?



Crispin Glover on David Letterman. WOWSA!



The latest Dance Moves: Chiicken Noodle Soup. (yes it's spelled with two "i"s)




Ghost Ride the Whip! - This is an interesting new craze. Get out and dance while your car is still moving.



And here is one gone wrong:



Here's the best fight scene ever.





Corey Haim - this one is filled with classics - "I'm really into Japanese funk." "I enjoy dibble-dabbling at the keyboards" and many more.




Well that should keep you busy for now. Are you sorry you asked?

We Are Playing Music

Friday, March 2nd and Saturday March 3rd GDH, the Road Rockets and Woody Simms Treeo will be playing the Canadian. Friday it will be GDH, RR's and a special cover band of all songs the Canadian crowd would enjoy. Saturday the Treeo will play as well as GDH and RR. We couldn't play a gig without a friend from out of town so this gig will see Professor Matt B from Madison, WI come up and belt out a few tunes. Should be a good time!

Here is us rehearsing:
My heart loves you.

INAPPROPRIATE!

A blast from the past,

The Inappropriate Reaction Channel:

Web 2.0

Here's a neat video about the internet. I had to pause it a few times to digest some of the ideas.




We're playing the Canadian March 2 and 3 (I think). More details to follow.

Gig Announcements and Hilarious Vid

So we're playing more gigs:
Jan 19th at the Speak Easy.

Feb 2/3 at the Canadian.

Come on out!

If the name Yngwie means anything to you, you should watch this video:



***THIS JUST IN!!!***
Our Feb. gig at the Canadian has been moved to March. Carry on.

for joyous beauty press play.
for jaw-dropping fireworks skip to 7:13.

on second thought just watch the whole thing.

Speaking of Andy...





Words can't describe whimsical moments like this.

This post is a cryptic write up of last weekend:

Why did Andy Kaufman wrestle women?


And completely unrelated: