Pointing and Giggling

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Everything is a Remix

Kirby Ferguson is awesome. If you share any of my interests (art, media, software, music, patent/copyright law, the Web), you need to see his stuff. (I'm fascinated by Remix Culture. If you like art/music/movies/tv, you should be paying attention to it, too.)

Here's the very shortest version of his thesis I've seen...his TED talk. It's fine, but nowhere near as good as watching all four parts of Everything is a Remix (see below). I suggest skipping this video and moving straight on to those....and maybe coming back to this later.

Dad- Note the stuff about multi-touch starting at about 5m30s:

Everything is a Remix in four parts:

Everything is a Remix, Part 1: (Transcript)

Everything is a Remix, Part 2: (Transcript)

Everything is a Remix, Part 3: (Transcript)

Everything is a Remix (Part 3.5....sorta'): The Matrix

Everything is a Remix, Part 4: (Transcript)

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

It's Later (Music, Cont.)

If you haven't yet, watch this series:

Everything is a Remix Part 1 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Regarding Remix culture, this also has been in my head (again) lately. It's a startlingly excellent bit of music history. If I had a production company, I'd hire this guy as an instructional designer. Hell, I'd pay for the charisma transplant he needs (or an actor to read his text WELL).

The Amen Break:

Moving on to other nerdery- I had just discovered the Wood Brothers when Ariel visited Syracuse.

I still listen to them all the time.

Despite repeated listenings, the last They Might Be Giants album actually did nothing for me. First time that's happened. Still, their kid stuff is brilliant and the previous album was pretty good.

Yes, I'm a nerd. So is Tim Minchin.

More later.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Music I've Been Listening To Lately

I HATE the band Fun.

But I love this cover. Julia's vocals on the first bridge are really nice.

The band is Walk Off the Earth, best known for their cover of "Somebody I Used to Know" played by five people on one guitar. That's fun to watch once or twice.

I don't care for Maroon5 at all, but I really enjoy this cover (NSFW:)

Remember that Ani DiFranco lyric:

people used to make recordsas in a record of an eventthe event of peopleplaying music in a roomnow everything is cross-marketingit's about sunglasses and shoesor guns or drugsyou choose

Well....isn't that what the items above are? This, too:

Here are the Overtones covering Cee Lo's "Fuck You."

Love it.

I also enjoy that YouTube is filled with musicians who have a great time recording/posting their OWN arrangement/performance of a piece. Sometimes remix culture produces stuff like this:

I enjoy the way Pomplamoose records their stuff. Anything you hear, you get to see how that sound was made.

I love unlikely mashups...like House of Pain mixed with Klezmer:

I think Todrick's flashmob-style public performances show tremendous talent and are a lot of fun:

That last one guest stars Pentatonix...who do some of the best a capella arrangements I've heard in a long time.

That's an amazing arrangement....and the performance is nearly flawless.

First heard East of Underground on NPR in a story about ARMY-produced music.

I like most of Baba Brinkman's stuff a lot:

And as long as we're talking nerdcore, here's Spose doing "I'm Awesome"

I love KO and Antoinette has quite a voice. This track would be great if the lyrics weren't such crap:

More KO:

KO look familar? That's because he beatboxes for Pentatonix.

More later.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Word of the day: Consanguinuity

I ran into the term here.

The following is dedicated with affection to Jamie.

	Lonzo & Oscar - I'm My Own Grandpa .mp3

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

mp3 here

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Census: No Human Subspecies

Say No To Socialism!

Please click for full-size image.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Attention Jews: Centuries of Inbreeding = BAD (MAPLE SYRUP URINE DISEASE?!)

Note the genetic abnormalities common enough among Ashkenazim that they need to be tested for.

Maps: Gay Marriage vs. First Cousin Marriage

Fascinating.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Why Chanukah Sucks

From an email to a friend who asked if I had a god Channukah:

I totally ignored Chanukah. Even if I was not an atheist with hostile attitudes towards religion, Chanukah is an awful holiday.

It is celebrated as a holiday of religious freedom, but what it really commemorates is the victory in a civil war of fundamentalists (Maccabees) over Jews who were merging their beliefs with Greek rationality, science, and custom.

To this day, the word orthodox Jews use for "heretic" or "apostate" is "apikoros", from the Greek "Epicurian."

Epicurus RULES. He's essential in the history of science, rationality, and humanism.

I'm in favor of leaving superstition behind in favor of rationality and humanism.

So no Chanukah for me.

Down with fundamentalism, up with reason. Hurray for Epicurus and apostates!