February 2007Lots of websites and blogs have a little link down at the bottom that says "Email this article to a friend" or something similar. This came up in a conversation tonight and I decided I wanted to add links to "Email this article to a friend", "Email this article to an enemy", and "Email this article to a disinterested third party", purely for the humor of having those links more than any actual functionality. Then I read about how in the past spammers have used this functionality to spam people and make it look like it's coming from you, so that pretty much put the brakes on my desire to add that functionality just for the sake of a joke. Stupid spammers. Really one of the lowest life forms on the planet.
For Christmas I received not one, but two copies of the new Beatles album, "Love" which I had desperately been wanting ever since learning of it. For anyone who doesn't know, Cirque Du Soleil wanted to do a Beatles themed show so George Martin and his son Giles took the original Beatles master tapes, put them in a metaphorical blender and came up with some amazing musical casseroles, some pieced together like Frankenstein's monster, with amazing results. Some songs have the vocals from one song set to the music from a completely different song with various textures from even more songs thrown in, while some other songs are changed very little from the originals but almost everything has at least some small subtle bits from other songs creeping in.
I definitely think the die hard Beatles fans (like myself) will reap the deepest rewards from this collection but even more casual Beatles fans can't miss the more extreme remixes and sound collages which, in my opinion, are by far the best and most amazing. This album continues to elicit goose bumps from me even several after listenings. I'm just about as big a Beatles fan as there is but I have yet to be able to trace each bit of each song back to its origin. The end of "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite" mixed with "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" sounds to me like a pristine aural representation of Hell, and I mean that in a wonderful, pure genius way. Listening to this album is like being caught in some strange wormhole where the entire Beatles catalog exists as one living, breathing entity; time and space ripple and fold back on themselves as sounds and images fade and meld into each other and through you.
I've evangelized for years about the genius of George Martin and how I think his role as producer had as much effect on the end result of Beatles records as the 4 Beatles themselves had in writing and playing them and I think this album puts his talents on display more than ever. Just listen to "Anthology" and you can hear a demo of a good song end up as a true masterpiece due in no small part to Martin's input.
The album is also available in two formats, standard CD, and a double CD+DVD version which includes the whole album (with some slightly longer versions of some songs) in 5.1 surround sound. This is an absolute must hear. Absolutely one of the most creative and amazing things I've heard in a long time.
BS Newswire:
In their continuing efforts to counter the buzz surrounding presidential hopeful Barack Obama, the republican party released this statement:
We've already touched on how "Obama" sounds frighteningly close to "Osama" and how his middle name is "Hussein", but we think this latest link can not be ignored. How could any patriotic American not be concerned about the similarity of the names "Barack" and "Baraka". For those who do not know, "Baraka" was a monstrous enemy in the popular and exceedingly violent video game, "Mortal Kombat". As you can see in this photo, he had a demonic, clearly anti-Christian visage and two deadly metal swords in his forearms. The only logical conclusion to the parallels between these two entities is that if we let Barack Obama into the Oval Office, he will most likely perform a "fatality" on this country. If you support Obama, then you are obviously a freedom-hating demon lover who wants to see America have its skull and spine ripped out in one fluid motion and then mockingly shown to its own momentarily standing body.
Somehow, from one of the labyrinthine jokes and conversations between Jess, Larry and I, came this:
Would you rather spoon or be spooned by Edward James Olmos?
Jess reminded me that 'd never updated about The Jacket. I did end up getting the Doctor Who/Das Boot jacket from Wested. Check out this thread for my perfectionist analysis and more information than you could ever want on the subject.
Short version is that it's not perfectly screen accurate, and I have a few niggles, but overall it's a damn cool jacket and I'm keeping it. I haven't managed to get a good picture yet, but what I have are in the linked thread.
It's brand new leather so it still needs some breaking in. Since it's been pretty cold, and we keep our heat on a pretty low setting to save energy and money, I usually wear a hoodie, or warm fuzzy shirt over a T-shirt, but to help break my new jacket in, I've been pretty much wearing it every waking hour instead.
There's also a great thread with lots of info and pictures of both the Wested and the more accurate but insanely expensive Bad Wolf jacket in this thread, but I'm not sure if you'll be able to view it without being a forum member.
One day Jess and I was listening to a song when she commented about how it sounded a lot like another song we liked. Immediately my creative urge demanded that I do something with this knowledge so I fired up my music studio and started tweaking, feverishly trying to create this Frankensteinian monster. I put the first few parts together and played it for Jess and Larry. All three of us were smiling ear to ear. It was alive!
I now present to you, Call Me Doctor Who.