Alice In Wonderland? Must be a rip off of that "Alice In Underpants" movie I saw

Try to watch this for less than half an hour.

Impossible.

And because I love you, here's where you can download the song for free, just like Sideshow Bob did!


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Listening to: Mogwai - Time and A Half
via FoxyTunes

Has it really been a month?

Well, actually, no. Several weeks though...not good. Let's see - what to write, what to write, what...

I know! Covers! About 95% of them are crap. There's only one reason for a band to do a cover: if they can bring a fresh, different interpretation of their own to the song. I'm bringing this up because I just today heard two covers; one of "Stand By Me" performed by John Lennon, and another of "That's When I Reach For My Revolver", performed by Moby. I like John, and I like Moby, but these are song that were done right the first time. No need to mess about with these songs. These guys have more than enough talent and creativity to either come up with a song that needs to be redone ("Voices Carry", for example), or just to come up with an original of their own.

One notable exception to this rule of covers applies to live performances - if you can perform a true and faithful reproduction live, then fine, go ahead. One performance that comes to mind is 10,000 Maniacs doing "Because the Night" on MTV Unplugged (pulled from YouTube...grrrrr!!!).

Once again, just to make it clear...

Good:

Transcendant:

Bad. Really, really, really bad:


Effing Olsen twins...



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Listening to: Dinosaur Jr. - Start Choppin (LP Version)
via FoxyTunes

Yeah...I *do* happen to like Beethoven.

I knew it! I could pretty much have told you all of this. Especially the part about country trending towards the left side of the graph.

Click it to make it bigger (that's what she said).





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Listening to: Ludwig Van Beethoven - Symphony No. 5, 1st Mvt.
via FoxyTunes

Noon whistles and rotary phones

Every weekday, at noon, the aptly named noon whistle goes off downtown. It's actually more like an air raid siren, but everyone calls it a whistle. This is a common happening all across Wisconsin. From what I've been told, it serves the purpose of letting the farmers out in the fields know that it was time to head back to the house to eat lunch.

I spend most of my youth growing up in cities and affluent suburbs, an so had never heard the noon whistle before I arrived in Wisconsin. I am now in love with the sound.

It is a common practice in Zen Buddhism to take advantage of everyday sounds such this to take a moment to center yourself, and I find it really is quite calming...at least as calming as an air raid siren can be (our sounds like the first one in the link; try to imagine the second one isn't going off if you can). Whenever I hear it, wherever I am, I stop what I'm doing, take in a deep breath as the siren slowly builds in intensity, then exhale as it slowly winds down into silence. Most relaxing!

On the subject of wonderful sounds: I sometimes miss the rotary phone. I love to hear the rhythmic click, whirrrr, click, whirr, click, whirrr, click, whirrrrrrrrrr (that was a zero) in an old movie or TV show. Good directors use that sound to add to the atmosphere, and it is so better than the grating beeps and boops of touch-tones.

I hate those damn boops.


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Listening to: Matisyahu - King Without A Crown (Live Version)
via FoxyTunes