beancounters

Funny +1

In honor of their web show's upcoming third season, The Guild teamed with director Jed Whedon to make their first music video.

I have to say, I have a real girl-crush on Felicia Day. She's taken all her hobbies (violin, singing, script-writing, MMORPG, social media) and mashed them up somehow with her acting. Now she has an nice eclectic career. Brilliant. Plus, how cute is she in this costume? She looks like she belongs on the cover of a new Anne McCaffrey book: Girl Band Of Pern.

Tuesday mash

Mashups are the most fun when you know all the songs thrown into the mix. This was a great rendition, not only for the tunes but the effort taken to make it look like Diamond Dave is singing with the Fab Four.

Just another mashup Monday

I love mashups. Love them. I used to find them offered all over the internet, in the days before the RIAA got all huffy. I even used to pass them around by making mashup CDs for my friends. Their reactions were always less enthusiastic than I'd hoped for. But who cares? I don't need friends; I have you people. Here's a new mashup that will make you laugh on a Monday.

Mashable (ha!) has the low-down.

The funk of forty thousand years

In April, the Gloved One will auction off his prized possessions. Sure, there's a recession on. But some investments stand the test of time. They endure the vagaries of the economy, just like Neverland Ranch. Well, okay. Maybe there'll be lots of bidders from Dubai.

You really have to look through the photo gallery. It's kind of sad when you run across the silver astronaut and realize he's even hawking his MTV music video award.

I myself like the jewelry, and that picture of the glove and glasses throughout history is funny. But the limosine? The interior was designed by him, and it looks like a coffin. I would pay to stay out of there.

Paranoia mix

Possibly the best music video ever. This tune will stay in your head longer than the leek spin song. (Now I'm listening to the leek spin song again. Frankly, it's a toss-up.)

OK electronica

Radiohead set a challenge to remix the song "Nude" from their latest album. And this video student did just that for his final project in school, turning dot-matrix printers, cassette tape recorders and old computer parts into his instruments.

Based on the lyric (and alternate title) "Big Ideas: Don't get any" I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.

[via]

Direct from Holodeck 3

Did you know Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek TNG) produced an album of easy list'ning music back in 1991?  And he's not bad! Waxy.org is offering it here - the album is out of print, so there should be no guilt associated with nabbing a few cuts.

For BB

Hoffmania gives an everyman's critique of the acoustics in the new Disney Concert Hall. Intriguing!

Sweeneyisms

So many December movies to look forward to! I'm getting ready for Sweeney Todd. BB, Anthony and I discuss it all the time. BB likes Len Cariou, who first held the title role, because he's such a lyric baritone. I prefer George Hearn because he was so damn frightening. He played in the award-winning Showtime version of ST. Rent it from Netflix, but to be fair, wait to order it until after you see the Johnny Depp version.

No ruddy pirates here!

Random Sweeney finds around the 'nets:

ST as directed by Ivan Reitman ("Ghostbusters"). Yes, it's a parody. Yes, I wrote it. Shut up.

Two other ST parodies, each more weird than the last!

ST Featuring Bryan Adams? WTF? Surely they don't mean this Bryan Adams.

ST: The Website. Never forget. Never forgive. Never turn down your speakers.

ST movie trailer done in the style of Harry Potter. Anthony, I'll just tell you since you don't watch You Tube videos - Sirius Black finally seems evil.

Johnny Depp is reunited with his razor. Voice-wise, the jury is still out ... we may yet be sorry they didn't cast Bryan Adams.

Breakin' up in five easy stages

The inimitable Lori of Hahn at Home has compiled a comprehensive list of breakup songs that would make Elizabeth Kubler-Ross proud.

The Breakup Matrix of Grief has five stages. So, I thought I’d share a little breakup mix. This is by no means an all inclusive list. In fact, I now sport about six or seven thousand songs to work through a breakup. It’s a science.

Cover art

Do you know who Faith Hill is? Can you picture her in your mind's eye? She's a pretty woman, isn't she? Well, simply 'pretty' don't cut it in the land of women's magazines. Here's a revealing look at Redbook's photoshop partay. Look how they airbrushed the hell out of her already nice-looking photo until she looks like a pasty, bland robot with poles for arms and hair that actually weighs her head down. Disgusting. (For a non-animated analysis, go here.)

To my brother ...

and to anybody else who wants to feel OLD: The baby on that Nirvana cover is turning 16.

Make 'em laugh

Not bad! I scored 14 out of 16 on the Mental Floss musical aptitude quiz. The ones I mixed up were 'Carousel' and 'Kiss Me Kate' - my folks owned most of the soundtracks for the others, and I grew up singing the all these songs. [Thanks, Karen!]

Note to self: Ellingtoven

Bradley Sowash is a pianist who dreamed up a collaboration between Beethoven and Duke Ellington. The result is this brilliant Ellingtoven. Go and download this fr3e mus1c file, watch the video, and then check out his other piano solo works.

Chestnaaauts roasting on an open faaahr

Have been forced to listen to the all-Christmas channel on the radio by Bunny, my morning traveling companion. She thinks it's good for me. I think it's cruel. But we parents never know when the really important life lessons will come, you know?  For instance, she turned up to full volume the infamous "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)". When Yoko came on for the chorus, I think it hurt the kid as much as it hurt me. Lesson learned? I sincerely hope so.

I have a question. Why do half the young tenors out there in Christmas Carol Land try and affect the style of Nat King Cole? Especially on that 'chestnuts roasting on an open fire' song. All of them try and sound like Nat King Cole. Why?

It's time for an intervention. Now, before Jesse McCartney gets any sudden ideas.

Dear Young Tenors:

I know you are recording Christmas carols because your producer said it would make you sound well-rounded as an artist, and maybe give you a piece of immortality, what with radio stations dragging out your songs every December, long after you gave up the dream and became a paramedic or something. And I know you were probably born in 1994 in Tarzana, California, and have never ridden in - nor even laid eyes on - a one-horse open sleigh. I'm sure there was probably a real dearth of open fire-roasted chestnuts in your life as well. But that's not why I'm writing.

It's about your predilection for trying to sound like Nat King Cole.  Again, maybe it wasn't your idea. But whatever the reason, please stop it. For your information, the world was already blessed with one singer who could sing in the style of Nat King Cole. He was really good, and gained great fame for his Nat King Cole style. I forget his name right now, but believe me, he had the Nat King Cole sound down. The man could do Nat King Cole like nobody's business. He was the epitome, if you will, of the Nat King Cole sound.

Now, he did pass on, as humans do, after a long and illustrious career. People were very sad when he died, yet heartened by the fact that, before he went, he recorded a plethora of Nat King Cole-sounding Christmas carols. In fact, I would venture to say that all the Christmas carols ever written were recorded by the guy who sang in that Nat King Cole style. And then those recordings were carefully catalogued and preserved. We can listen to them any time we want (unless we can't remember the guy's name when we go to the record store and such).

So we don't need any more tenors trying to do that Nat King Cole sound nowadays. If you really must record Christmas carols, just sing in your own style and be yourself. That way you'll recognize your own work in later years when you hear it on your dispatcher's radio. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Pam

Buy me some holiday cheer

Jo says when she was at Ikea, they played only Christmas carols having to do with shopping. Hyperbole? Maaaaaaybe. But it got me wondering: how many carols are there about shopping?

So far, all I can think of is

* Silver Bells

* Here We Come A-Wassailing (which isn't exactly about shopping, but it is about grubbing free food from the neighbors - another acquisition-oriented activity)

* The Christmas Shoes - BTW, hands down, most depressing Xmas song ever.

Others? Leave 'em in the comments. (And no, the famous Tom Lehrer Christmas medley doesn't fly.)

Battle of the rock widows

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley ceded his crown to Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain on Forbes.com's list as the top-earning dead celebrity.

Cobain's coup was due to his widow, actress and singer Courtney Love, who sold a 25-percent stake in the Seattle grunge group's song catalog to New York music publishing company PrimeWave.

Rounding out the top five [was] Beatle John Lennon at $24 million ...

Good lord, Yoko and Priscilla. Get crackin'! Home-girl Courtney's beating you by a mile.

Halloween music

I just downloaded the Bride of Monster Mash (legally) (for a change) [via BoingBoing] - it's fantastic. If you get a chance, I recommend it. Starts with Prokofiev and moves into the Ghostbusters theme song and later, 'The Devil Went Down on Betty'. BB says he might have it playing when trick or treaters come to the door. Mwheh-heh.

Guiltless albumage

It's Saturday, and it's lunchtime, but you still have plenty of time to visit FreeIndie.com, a site that's a gathering place for fr3e songz and albumz.

Right now I'm listening to The Attorneys. Those kids are not bad. But of course, they need to cut their hair and stop slouching. I can't believe they got through law school, looking like that.

Also, I recommend this video: The Worst Job Ever!

Save Ginny & Stick it to Dolores

Heavens to You-Know-Who, it was hotter inside than out at the Harry and the Potters concert this afternoon. Also, there were, like, 20 chairs - most taken by grannies rockin' out - leaving the younger crowd to form a mosh pit at the front of the library -

Still, everyone loved H. and the P's, and also loved their new opening band, Draco and the Malfoys! Two guys - Draco Malfoy (Year 18), and Draco Malfoy (Year 15), sing rock tunes they wrote about their inability to kill Dumbledore, their hatred for HP (My Dad is Rich), their contempt for Ron Weasley and his cheap broomstick, and their love for Pansy Parkinson, the only okay-looking girl in Slytherin.

(You think I could talk them into recording my Slytherin anthem?)

All I went for was to buy a t-shirt and to hear my favorite song, Save Ginny. It was great! If they come to a stuffy library near you this summer, go and see them.